A Study of Prospective Boarding Parents, the New York Foundling Hospital, 1950
Abstract
The basic principle that "children should not be deprived of home life except for urgent and compelling reasons" and that "carefully selected foster hones for the normal child is the best substitute for the natural homes"? was clearly stated by child welfare experts at the 1909 White House Conference in Washington D.C. This principle has received repeated endorsement, widespread support and universal application since that time. In situations where natural parents are unable to provide even a minimum of construction care it is a growing public conviction that foster home care can best meet the needs of the dependent child by providing a more normal environment giving him a sense of belonging, experience in close human relationships and opportunity for participation in family and community activities. Action has accompanied this conviction and 1951 statistics presented by the New York State Department of Social welfare disclosed that there were 42,439 children in foster care of which 16,175 were in institutional care, 20,772 in boarding homes and the remaining 5,492 in free adoptive, work wage homos, self-supporting in foster homes end in other types of care. In considering the large number of children placed in boarding homes, it is of importance to give definite attention to the equipment end personalities of the substitute parents who play such a vital role in the assuming of responsibility for these children. In New York State. There are 874 licensed boarding homes and 12,223 certified homes. New York City alone has 411 of the licensed boarding homes are 4122 of the certified homes. From these facts it can logically be assumed that a Corresponding number of foster parents have been evaluated as acceptable by agencies to which they had applied and have been judged capable of meeting the needs of children—physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual.
Subject Area
Individual & family studies|Health care management|Social work
Recommended Citation
Furey, Frances Mary, "A Study of Prospective Boarding Parents, the New York Foundling Hospital, 1950" (1952). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI30509620.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI30509620
