Case Study- Foster Case System

Anton: A Case Study Anton is a 17-year-old African American male who lives in Murfreesboro, TN. He has been entered into the foster care system over the last several months due to issues of truancy: Anton struggles to get to his school on time, and then he tends to leave after only a couple of hours rather than remaining for the entire day.  Anton’s birth mother Cheryl lives in Nashville. She has an apartment and a job which would allow her to care for Anton. However, when his truancy was reported his mother lost custody. Cheryl feels that school is not extremely important, and that at his age Anton should be allowed to decide whether to continue his education. That said, Cheryl has always been loving and giving to Anton.

She taught Anton his manners and his responsibility to others. Anton feels very close to his mother and expresses that he doesn’t want to be separated from her.Anton’s foster mother Janine and foster father Andy have two birth children and one adopted child in addition to Anton. Janine feels that Anton is sweet and caring, and that he follows direction quite well. However, Janine has become overwhelmed that Anton continues to miss classes. His Individual Education Plan has recently been adjusted to require that a chaperone must walk with Anton to all of his classes for the rest of the school year.

Janine and Andy state that they do not understand why he doesn’t go to all of his classes. They feel that they have tried so many tactics to ensure that he does what is expected of him. Janine admits that one of the major frustrations is that Anton is so well behaved in other aspects of life, so the truant behaviors are perplexing.

Further Description

Recently, Anton has begun expressing symptoms of major depressive disorder. In addition to individual and foster  group therapy, Anton has been prescribed an antidepressant. Anton states that he feels weird in the group therapy, because he’s the only person who isn’t there for drugs. The other group members seem unable to understand his presence, and dismiss his depression as not being a real problem.  Anton has a girlfriend named Leah, who is his same age. She attends his high school, and has recently begun mentioning her excitement for and desire to attend prom. Anton doesn’t really want to go, but states that he has to in order to make Leah happy. Anton appears to care about Leah. He has stated that he hopes to make the relationship last for the long term.

  Anton is approximately five months away from his eighteenth birthday. He is not interested in being adopted, and is fully expecting to age out of the system and return to his birth mother’s home once he is able. Anton plans to attend a trade school, stating that he doesn’t want to go to college. He doesn’t appear to have any long-term goals.

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