<P> In Japan, foster care started around 1948, leading to the passing of the Child Welfare Law . The idea of foster care or taking in abandoned children actually came about around 1392 - 1490s in Japan . The foster care system in Japan is similar to the Orphan Trains because Brace thought the children would be better off on farms . The people in Japan thought the children would do better on farms rather than living in the "dusty city ." The families would often send their children to a farm family outside the village and only keep their oldest son . The farm families served as the foster parents and they were financially rewarded for taking in the younger siblings . "It was considered an honor to be chosen as foster parents, and selection greatly depended on the family's reputation and status within the village". Around 1895 the foster care program became more like the system used in the United States because the Tokyo Metropolitan Police sent children to a hospital where they would be "settled". Problems emerged in this system, such as child abuse, so the government started phasing it out and "began increasing institutional facilities". In 1948 the Child Welfare Law was passed, increasing official oversight, and creating better conditions for the children to grow up in . </P> <P> In the United Kingdom, foster care and adoption has always been an option, "in the sense of taking other people's children into their homes and looking after them on a permanent or temporary basis ." Although, nothing about it had a legal foundation, until the 20th century . The UK had "wardship," the family taking in the child had custody by the Chancery Court . Wardship was not used very often because it did not give the guardian "parental rights ." In the 19th century came a "series of baby farming scandals ." At the end of the 19th century they started calling it "boarding - out" like they did in Australia . They started placing the children in orphanages and workhouses as well . "The First World War saw an increase in organized adoption through adoption societies and child rescue organizations, and pressure grew for adoption to be given legal status ." The first laws based on adoption and foster care were passed in 1926 . "The peak number of adoptions was in 1968, since when there has been an enormous decline in adoption in the United Kingdom . The main reasons for children being adopted in the United Kingdom had been unmarried mothers giving up their children for adoption and stepparents adopting their new partner's children". </P> <P> In the United States, foster care started as a result of the efforts of Charles Loring Brace . "In the mid 19th Century, some 30,000 homeless or neglected children lived in the New York City streets and slums ." Brace took these children off the streets and placed them with families in most states in the country . Brace believed the children would do best with a Christian farm family . He did this to save them from "a lifetime of suffering" He sent these children to families by train, which gave the name The Orphan Train Movement . "(This) lasted from 1853 to the early 1890s (1929?) and transported more than 120,000 (250,000?) children to new lives ." When Brace died in 1890, his sons took over his work of the Children's Aid Society until they retired . The Children's Aid Society created "a foster care approach that became the basis for the federal Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997" called Concurrent Planning . This greatly impacted the foster care system . Children's Aid works with the biological and foster parents to "achieve permanency". "From the mid-1800s to the eve of the Great Depression, orphan train children were placed with families who pre-selected them with an order form, specifying age, gender, hair and eye color . In other cases, trainloads of children were assembled on stages, train platforms or town halls and examined by prospective parents . "Conjuring the image of picking the best apple from the bin . Sometimes a child would be separated from his or her brothers and sisters, or would end up in a family that only wanted them to work . Most of the time the children were chosen by a loving or childless family". </P> <P> Family - based foster care is generally preferred to other forms of out of home care . Foster care is intended to be a short term solution until a permanent placement can be made . Generally, the first choice of adoptive parents is a relative such as an aunt, uncle or grandparent, known as kinship care . If no related family member is willing or able to adopt, the next preference is for the child to be adopted by the foster parents or by someone else involved in the child's life (such as a teacher or coach). This is to maintain continuity in the child's life . If neither above option are available, the child may be adopted by someone who is a stranger to the child . </P>

When did foster care start in the us