● The most interesting news of the past week is Prof. Robert
Latham’s findings about the Florida CASA program. He found that, using the program’s own
criteria for measuring success, there is no evidence that the program does any
good, and some evidence that it may do harm. (This is on top of a wealth of
other evidence that CASA is harmful.) The Florida
program has descended to using the worst kind of fearmongering to keep itself
in business. I have two blog posts about
it. This
link goes to part one, and includes links to part two and to Prof. Latham’s
full analysis.
● But there is an intervention that does work: high-quality defense counsel for families. NCCPR
President Martin Guggenheim has written two articles on the latest study to
demonstrate this, one
for Child Law Practice Today,
(co-authored with Susan Jacobs), a publication of the American Bar Association’s
Center on Children and the Law, the
other for Children’s Bureau Express,
a publication of the federal Administration for Children and Families.
● In The Hill, Charissa
Huntzinger, a policy analyst for the Center for Families and Children at the
Texas Public Policy Foundation, has an excellent overview of the harm of
needless removal and a timely reminder that “Removing
children from their parents doesn't just happen at the border.”
● In San Diego, activists are demanding
a seat at the table – literally – on a new advisory board, in order to
ensure that the county child welfare system addresses the issue of racial bias.
● The child welfare system in Canada is depressingly similar
to the one in the United States. Brielle
Morgan, a reporter for The Discourse,
has done outstanding reporting on the failings of that system. This
story zeroes in on the confusion of poverty with “neglect.” As one of those interviewed put it: “When
they remove children from a family in a home and put the child into another
home, they pay that family a substantial amount of money to look after these
children. Why didn’t they just take that money they were going to pay to foster
care into the family and put preventative measures and family supports into
place — so that that family unit can stay together?”
● And check out this speech, in which Jerry Milner, acting
commissioner of the federal Administration on Children, Youth and Families,
calls for changing what child welfare does, how we pay for it, and even how we
talk about it. (It’s worth sticking around for it all, it gets better as it
continues):
