family preservation Archive
It is the latest fad in child welfare: Use a computer algorithm that supposedly can predict who will abuse a child. The term commonly used in the field is “predictive analytics.” A more accurate term would be “computerized racial profiling.” …
Last November, when the federal government finally released state-by-state data on the number of children trapped in foster care the year before (yes, the feds release the data more than a year after they get it) the Associated Press reported …
When a longitudinal study of children in California found that they are more likely to be reported as allegedly being abused or neglected over five years than over just one, this led to some remarkable leaps of logic. It was …
Last year, I wrote about the scandal at the Volunteer Guardian-ad-litem (VGAL) program in Snohomish County, Wash., an affiliate of the state’s Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) network. CASA is a white, middle-class bastion of the child welfare system, a system that …
At the end of 2016, the federal government finally released state-by-state foster care numbers for 2015. Congratulations, Alaska: You’re number one! The National Coalition for Child Protection Reform uses a “Rate of Removal Index” to determine each state’s propensity to place …
Last month I wrote a column called “Why the ‘Foster-Care-at-All-Costs’ Crowd Will Never Surrender Their Horror Stories.” I offered those wedded to a take-the-child-and-run approach to child welfare a deal: a mutual moratorium on the use of horror stories to …
Imagine the following scenario: A child is taken from her parents. When child protective services decides to reunify the family the foster parents object. They wage a fierce fight, but they lose. Sometime later, the child is dead. She was …
I will leave it to others to try to guess what the election of Donald Trump means for child welfare policy, aside from pointing out that in addition to all the other reasons to worry, as far as I know …
“When elephants fight,” the proverb goes, “the grass gets hurt.”