Between the release of NIS-4 and the events in Los Angeles County, there have been a lot of changes in what passes for a schedule for posts to this Blog. Here's what I expect to be posting next week:
MONDAY: THE LA TIMES TAKES THE WRONG PAGE FROM THE NY TIMES PLAYBOOK: How the Los Angeles Times made the same crucial error that led to havoc in the New York City system when The New York Times did it in 2005. The post also will discuss how DCFS director Trish Ploehn isn't helping: Asked the simple question: can the number of children in Los Angeles County foster care on any given day go down any further? Ploehn has managed to answer "yes" "maybe not" and "I don't know" all in one week. This post closes with a look at how the lead reporter on the Times stories and his colleagues have behaved in a way that is eerily similar to the behavior of some public officials that reporter implicitly criticized in a brilliant story he wrote in 2002.
TUESDAY: THE SILVER LINING: There's a good chance that any foster care panic in Los Angeles will be less severe than what's happened in other cities. And the reason for that has a lesson for the entire nation.
THURSDAY: THE SHAM OF ACCREDITATION: I expect finally to get to that post about the dangers of this fake form of accountability in child welfare.
