Identification and placement of children without parental care

Social orphanhood

Orphans are considered to be minors deprived of a family who require government assistance. The reason for the loss of parental care may be the death of parents (direct orphans) or their evasion from fulfilling their duties.

Social orphans are neglected children whose biological parents are alive but are not raising them for various reasons:

• due to deprivation of rights (due to alcoholism, drug addiction, mental illness, abuse, etc.);
• when abandoning children;
• in case of long-term treatment;
• during deprivation of liberty, serving a sentence;
• if their location is not determined (unknown missing).

Parents can retain their legal rights, but the group of children left without parental care due to deprivation or restriction of parental rights is the largest. According to statistics, deprivation of parental rights most often occurs due to severe alcoholism of parents. Often the reason is cruel treatment or involvement of children in illegal activities.

Types of social orphanhood

Children may be left without parental care temporarily or permanently, in fact or legally. Based on the reasons why this happened, social orphans are divided into the following groups:

• having parents deprived and limited in their rights;
• neglected;
• "refuseniks";
• "foundlings";
• raised away from their parents (for example, placed in institutions for the disabled).

The first group makes up the main contingent of special boarding-type children's institutions: shelters, orphanages, orphanages.

Separately, we can highlight such a phenomenon as hidden social orphanhood. At the same time, children can live in a family, but in fact remain neglected, since their parents do not show interest in their lives and do not educate them. Often such children become street children and engage in vagrancy.

When is a child considered an orphan?

foster family - a form of placement of orphans and children left without parental care, on the basis of an agreement on the transfer of a child (children) for upbringing in a family between the guardianship and trusteeship authorities and adoptive parents (spouses or individual citizens who want to take children into a family for upbringing );

guardianship and trusteeship - a form of placement of orphans and children left without parental care, for the purpose of their maintenance, upbringing and education, as well as to protect their rights and interests; guardianship is established over children under the age of 14; guardianship is established over children aged 14 to 18 years;

Causes

The causes of social orphanhood are diverse and cover a whole range of provoking factors - from socio-economic to political. The immediate ones include:

• voluntary abandonment of children by parents;
• forced removals from dysfunctional families.

After identifying a child left without parental care, he is taken under the care of the state for placement in an educational institution for orphans (social and direct) or transferred to another family for upbringing.

Children left without parental care, who are they?

This category includes minor citizens under the age of 18, whose parents are unable or unwilling to fulfill their duties. The reasons for assigning the status of children without parental care are cases when parents:

• deprived of the right to raise children or partially limited in this right;
• one of the parents is declared fully or partially incompetent;
• a serious illness in one or both parents , due to which it is impossible to fully raise and provide financial support for the child;
• are listed as missing;
• suspected of committing offenses;
• are in prison;
• deliberately do not want to raise a child;
• do not fulfill their duties , refuse to protect the rights and interests of the child.

Under such conditions, the issues of placing children in foster or foster families, in special institutions, have to be dealt with by state social services, which identify minors left without parental care, keep records of them and control the future life, nutrition and development of children given to other people for upbringing.

Education in specialized institutions

All minors deprived of parental care are subject to family placement. However, most often this cannot be done quickly. The state system provides for various types of specialized institutions, designed for a certain age of children, taking into account the presence of diseases or length of stay.

Orphans registered with the state have the right to receive benefits, housing and other types of material and property assistance. Monitoring the observance of the interests of children, as well as the protection of the personal and property rights of minors, is entrusted to the guardianship and trusteeship authorities.

Social support for orphans

Social support for orphans is provided in accordance with Law No. 159 of 1996. The regulatory act contains general guarantees.
Each region has the right to develop its own law on assistance to orphans. But it cannot contradict the federal one.

Types of social support for orphans:

• benefits;
• one-time payments;
• education benefits;
• assistance in medical care;
• provision of housing.

Regional regulations may provide for additional support measures. For example, the legislation of the Novosibirsk region provides for monthly payments for cultural events.

The legislation of the Altai Territory provides for the possibility of receiving a monthly allowance for adoptive parents who have adopted a child who has been under guardianship for more than 3 years.

Important! From the moment the court decision on adoption enters into legal force, the child is deprived of the right to support measures.

Social support measures are provided not only to minors, but also to citizens under the age of 23.

Child benefits

Federal legislation establishes a list of payments that foster parents receive in all regions of the country.

In 2021, the following payments are provided:

1. Monthly allowance for the maintenance of the ward - depending on the legislation of the region. As a rule, it is equal to the subsistence minimum per child. Paid for wards and adopted children.
2. Remuneration for the adoptive parent depends on the legislation of the region.

The guardian and foster parent must report annually for the expenses of the monthly allowance. The remuneration is intended for the adoptive parent and is not subject to reporting.

One-time payments

A number of payments are made at a time. They are paid on application basis.

The foster parent has the right to payment if he applies to the authorized body within 6 months from the date of receipt of the order to transfer the child to the family or the entry into force of the court decision on adoption.

Types of benefits:

1. One-time allowance for the adoption of a child into the family of a guardian, foster parent or adoptive parent - RUB 17,479.72.
2. One-time benefit for adoption (if children aged 7 years or older, disabled children or siblings are adopted) - RUB 133,559.

Important! The law does not oblige the substitute parent to account for spending one-time benefits. They have no intended purpose.

Education

Educational benefits for orphans:

1. Providing a place in kindergarten without waiting lists.
2. Free meals in kindergarten and school.
3. Completing preparatory courses for entering a university free of charge.
4. Free education at the secondary school.
5. Payment of an annual allowance for educational literature.
6. Payment of compensation for clothing and soft equipment upon graduation.
7. Payment of a one-time benefit upon graduation from an educational institution - 500 rubles.
8. The right to free travel during the study period.

Medical support

Orphans have the right to the following types of medical care free of charge:

• health care;
• high-tech medical care;
• annual medical examination;
• health improvement (including sanatorium-resort treatment);
• medical examinations.

Minors have the right to sanatorium treatment. Moreover, not only the voucher is paid for, but also delivery to the vacation spot and back. In case of independent purchase of a voucher, the cost and travel can be compensated at the request of the substitute parent.

Providing housing

If a child or his blood parents do not own residential premises, then the minor has the right to register for the purpose of obtaining housing.

The procedure for providing living space is established by regional legislation.

But in the whole country the order is similar:

1. Collection of documents on the lack of housing ownership (upon the child reaches 14 years of age).
2. Submitting an application for registration to the local government body.
3. Obtaining an order to register as someone in need of housing.
4. Submitting an application for housing (upon reaching 18 years of age).
5. Queuing.

As practice shows, an apartment is not issued immediately upon reaching adulthood. In the Russian Federation there is a waiting list to provide housing for orphans. Therefore, a person who is an orphan will have to wait from 5 to 7 years. The apartment is issued under a social tenancy agreement. After 5 years it can be privatized.

Psychological difficulties encountered in children

When assessing children's psychological ill-being, among the significant factors influencing the severity of the consequences of social orphanhood, the age of the children when entering the institution, as well as the time spent in it, must be taken into account. The psychological problems of seized children, “refuseniks” or hidden orphans have both common features and differences. Speaking of general ones, various deprivations and attachment disorders should be considered.

Deprivation is a lack of satisfaction of needs that occurs due to the lack of sources for their satisfaction, which later leads to detrimental consequences for the psyche. The main unmet need becomes the need for connection with the mother - maternal deprivation. In addition, the following types of deprivation are observed:

• sensory – with insufficient visual, auditory, tactile, or other stimulation;
• motor, associated with a sharp restriction of movement and often causing compensatory activity (for example, rocking syndrome);
• social, which has especially severe consequences for young children.

In addition to deprivation, attachment plays an important role - the emotional connection between a child and adults, violations of which interfere with normal mental development. Deprivation and attachment disorders in one way or another affect all social orphans: both those who are outside the family from birth, and those later removed from unfavorable conditions.

Moments of deprivation of parents' parental rights and removal from the family, even the most dysfunctional ones, are experienced very acutely by children - with the pain of loss, fears, resentment, uncertainty, and sometimes aggressive denial. Such psychological trauma leaves a deep mark, affecting all aspects of life.

Placement in an institution or foster family is perceived as a final break with family, so the adaptation period is accompanied by imbalance and emotional inconsistency. After acute psychotrauma or against the background of a chronically unfavorable situation, the development of depressive states, “orphan syndrome”, characterized by impaired communication skills, speech, and fine motor skills, is possible.

Preschool age

In children under 1.5 years of age, maternal deprivation has the character of hospitalism, the signs of which are delayed physical and speech development, obsessive movements (swinging, hand sucking, head banging, etc.), insufficiency in the emotional sphere. Basic trust in the world is also not formed, which at an older age gives rise to aggressiveness, distrust of people, and reluctance to learn.

Hospitalization before the age of 5 is synonymous with attachment disorder and can manifest itself as an inability to form social connections, an inability to interact normally with others, and to respond to emerging contacts. Children experience reduced cognitive activity.

Such disorders are caused by a lack of communication and lack of physical stimulation at an early age. Since the root of the problem is the lack of full communication with the mother and proper care, manifestations of disorders occur in social orphans of preschool age of any group.

Junior school age

At primary school age, promiscuity in communication is added to the manifestations of reactive attachment disorders. Children do not differentiate between friends and strangers, “bad” and “good”, so they easily communicate even with socially disadvantaged people. During this period, school disadaptation is added to social disadaptation, which is expressed by learning and behavioral disorders. Due to the lack of family ties, difficulties arise with self-identification. Here, seized children are in a more advantageous position in relation to “refuseniks”, since they have memories of blood relatives.

Teenage years

For adolescents, environmental factors begin to play an important role, which contributes to the development of deviant behavior. They are intellectually passive, their need to learn new things is extremely weak, immediate desires dominate, and their prospects are limited to the immediate future. There are disturbances in interpersonal relationships, there is often a lack of interest in others, and there is an inability to empathize. At this age, teenagers from orphanages are especially sensitive to their difference from “family” children.

Youth

Adolescence is characterized by problems with socialization and professional self-determination. There is an almost complete unpreparedness for independent life. Early pregnancies with abandonment of newborns (secondary orphans) are common, associated with an unformed sense of attachment, as well as a lack of social responsibility.

Deviant behavior

Deviant behavior—violating social norms—usually has a group character. This includes early alcoholism, drug addiction and substance abuse, vagrancy, and various offenses.

Antisocial behavior becomes a consequence of the behavioral characteristics of minors associated with the development of pathological character traits, and is caused by a combination of three factors:

• biological (genetic predisposition);
• residual organic (for example, alcohol intoxication of the fetus, infections, birth injuries, etc.);
• socio-psychological (living conditions, psychotrauma).

As a rule, each of them has an adverse effect on the development of social orphans. Preventing deviant behavior outside of family education becomes a very difficult task.

Preventing and combating social orphanhood

Prevention of social orphanhood is aimed at reducing the number of orphans in specialized institutions, stimulating forms of family arrangement, and working with dysfunctional families. The list of preventive measures includes:

1. Providing assistance to blood families.
2. Payment of benefits to adoptive parents and substitute families.
3. Support for graduates of orphanages to prevent secondary orphanhood.

Various social funds and charitable organizations also provide assistance.

Legislative regulation

1. Family Code of the Russian Federation;
2. Federal Law of December 21, 1996 N159-FZ “On additional guarantees for social support for orphans and children without parental care”;
3. Federal Law of July 24, 1998 N 124-FZ “On the Basic Guarantees of the Rights of the Child in the Russian Federation”;
4. Federal Law of April 16, 2001 N 44-FZ “On the state data bank on children left without parental care”;
5. Federal Law of April 24, 2008 N 48-FZ “On guardianship and trusteeship”;
6. Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of May 18, 2009 N 423 “On certain issues of guardianship and trusteeship in relation to minor citizens.”

Privileges

To help children who, for various reasons, have lost their closest people, the state provides benefits.

Persons whose parents are no longer alive are entitled to a survivor's pension. Its size depends on the parent’s work experience. If the child has sufficient work experience, he will receive a labor pension; if he has little work experience, he will receive a social pension.

Payments are made until the age of majority or until the heir reaches 23 years of age if he is a full-time student at an educational institution.

When enrolled in various educational institutions, such children enjoy privileges in the form of:

• increased scholarship;
• free food;
• receiving financial assistance to purchase basic necessities;
• discounted travel on any type of public transport.

Students receive a triple scholarship once each year to purchase educational supplies.

After completing the training, the graduate can contact the employment service. Service employees help you find a job by checking your professional suitability and registering it.

If he has no work experience, he will receive a benefit for six months, the amount of which is equal to the average salary in the region.

Medical care is also completely free , both routine examination and required surgical interventions. Funding for treatment is taken from the state treasury.

In addition to all of the above, free health improvement is provided in camps, sanatoriums and boarding houses. Payment for the trip is also made by the state.

As for housing, here too the state does not leave orphans and children without parental care without help. After graduating from a boarding school and reaching the age of 18, a child is an applicant to receive his own square meters of living space.

But for this there must be the following conditions: an orphan or one left without parental care must not have social housing or their own housing (inherited from their parents), relatives also do not have sufficient square footage to register, and if housing is available, it does not meet sanitary standards and other standards.

If these conditions are met, the child is placed on a waiting list for housing.

Benefits also apply to utility bills. To receive them, the child must be a full-time student at a school or vocational education institution, and must also have living quarters. Under these conditions, persons of this category are exempt from paying utility bills and accommodation fees.

If you have your own home, you receive a 100% discount. When living on the territory of the guardian, the benefit is distributed according to the norm of the area sufficient for the ward.