● Of course the most important news was the outstanding
series, “Throwaway Kids” from the Kansas
City Star. I have a
blog post on it, with links to the stories.
And one of the reporters on the series, Laura Bauer, was interviewed
on NPR’s Morning Edition.
● Echoing the Star’s
findings, the nation’s top child welfare official, Jerry Milner, spoke of the
confusion of poverty with neglect at a conference in Mississippi. The
Jackson, (Miss.) Free Press has a report.
● The New York Daily
News has an
excellent op-ed column from Michele Cortese and Tehra Coles of the Center
for Family Representation. It explains why New York City needs to build on the success
on its model
of family representation by making lawyers available to families as soon as
they are under investigation by the city’s Administration for Children’s
Services.
● NBC News and the Houston
Chronicle have
another strong follow-up to their series on the devastation done to
families when “child abuse pediatricians” get it wrong. One doctor has a
solution that’s simple, sensible and would only be resisted in a field as
arrogant as child welfare. They resist even though, as this doctor notes, “When
we get this one wrong, you take a kid away from a loving family, and a
caretaker goes to jail.”
● The American Bar Association publication Child Law Practice Today has a guide to
help practitioners deal with Race
and Poverty Bias in the Child Welfare System.
