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families have been replaced by foster families, increasing the number of the children in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
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