3. Children Deprived of Their Family Environment (Article 20 of CRC) and Adoption (Article 21 of CRC) Alternative Care (CRC/C/KOR/3-4, para. 234~238; CRC/C/KOR/Q/3-4, para. 30 and 72~73) 51. The Committee on the Rights of the Child, in the course of reviewing the 2nd Report, recommended that the Korean Government should place the families headed by children with no adult guardians in the care of foster families and expand the number of group homes and the foster care system by providing greater financial support to foster families and increasing the counseling and support mechanisms for foster families. As was recommended by the Committee, some of the child-headed families have been replaced by foster families, increasing the number of the children in foster homes, although by a small margin. However, this comes from the rise in the number of the former children heads who were sent to their grandparents as their kinship care givers. It would cause another problem if child-headed families are placed in the care of kinship members or foster families with no appropriate advance examination of their childrearing capability or environment giving. In this light, it is advisable to promote foster care by their relatives or other families who are able to provide substantial care and protection to those children. The reality is, however, that the number of the children living with the caregiving relatives or other foster families has decreased since 2007 (see Table 13). 52. The Government needs to map out the measures to promote and support ordinary foster homes as an alternative care system. Furthermore, it needs to expand the financial support to foster homes, while increasing practical followup services for foster homes and the children in the foster home care, including counseling, to help build their capacities. Additionally, the Government needs to increase the number of the Foster Home Support Centers (there are only 18 Centers, including the National Foster Home Support Center, throughout the country). 3 Table 1. The number of children in foster care by year and by care type Year Total Grandparents’ Care Kinship Care 2003 7,565 3,458 3,541 2004 10,198 5,196 4,133 2005 12,562 7,552 4,007 2006 14,465 9,062 4,160 Foster Home Care 566 869 1,003 1,243 2007 16,200 10,112 4,850 1,238 2008 16,454 10,709 4,519 1,226 2009 16,608 10,947 4,503 1,158 2010 16,359 10,865 4,371 1,123 * Source: Ministry of Health and Welfare, The 2010 Report on the Status of Children in Foster Care, 2011 14