From the Frontlines: A Personal and Professional Reflexive Analysis of the U.S. Foster Care System

Abstract

This autoethnography offers a personal and professional reflexive analysis of the U.S. foster care system from the perspective of a former foster youth, and current social worker and kinship guardian. Through narrative and critical analysis, it exposes how the system—though intended to protect—functions as a carceral regime that perpetuates racialized surveillance, intergenerational trauma, and systemic harm, particularly for Black, Latino, and Indigenous families. The piece argues that reform is insufficient, arguing instead for a radical reimagining of care grounded in community, dignity, and restorative. This analytical autoethnography critiques the complicity of nonprofits, educators, and policymakers in sustaining harm and urges a collective shift from paternalistic intervention to solidarity-driven support. It calls for the centering of lived experience, structural courage, and policies that prioritize family preservation, healing, and equity. This is not just a critique—it is an urgent call to action for a system of care that affirms rather than erases.