● In Los Angeles, a group calling itself the Alliance for
Children’s Rights makes selective use of data to promote ugly stereotypes about
poor people and demean the lived experience of thousands of foster children.
But while distorting data is easy, setting the record straight can require
going deep into the weeds. Ready
to take the trip?
● More than 50 years ago, states rushed to pass laws forcing
people in certain professions to report any suspicion of “child abuse” to
authorities. In some states, everyone is
a mandated reporter. No one actually did
any research to see whether this would work.
Now, at last, the research is catching up and – surprise – the laws
backfire. They deter people from seeking help and they overload systems so
workers have less time to find children in real danger.
I review this recent research, and the ugly history of mandatory reporting laws in this column for Youth Today. But in child welfare research is no match for politics. The bill discussed in the column that would have slightly curbed mandatory reporting in Idaho was defeated.
I review this recent research, and the ugly history of mandatory reporting laws in this column for Youth Today. But in child welfare research is no match for politics. The bill discussed in the column that would have slightly curbed mandatory reporting in Idaho was defeated.
● Mandatory reporters almost always include school
personnel, and their reports often are among the most damaging. The parents who report and write for Rise magazine have some excellent
recommendations for curbing
the damage done by needless reporting by
school personnel.
● Rise had its
start as a column in Represent, a
magazine written by and for foster youth. Represent
was an outgrowth of a publication known as New
Youth Connections. And it all began
with one visionary, Keith Hefner. As
Hefner retires, the Chronicle of Social
Change looks
at his legacy.
● Also in Youth Today,
the director of a child welfare agency that provides, among other things,
residential treatment has co-authored a
column that calls for – a
lot less use of residential
treatment.
Jeremy Kohomban and Sara Kroon Chiles write:
With Family First Act implementation underway, editorials and articles proliferate, many articulating nervousness among residential providers. With their revenue models under attack, some institutions are fighting back in the press and in the halls of statehouses to defend child welfare models that can be frightening, backward and protectionist of ineffective practice.
While short-term residential placement is a necessary part of the continuum of care for some high-needs children in foster care, it is never an effective long-term solution. …
● Last year, in
still another column for Youth Today
I wrote about how child welfare agencies and middle-class foster parents play
the “bonding card” to take – and keep – poor people’s children. WXYZ-TV in Detroit
has
an update on one of the cases I cited in that column – and this time the
news is good.
● But, so far, at least, you can get away with playing the
bonding card to take a poor person’s child for your very own in Minnesota. The Chronicle
of Social Change has
an update on a case they’ve been following closely.
● For the online news site Crosscut, Tara Urs, special counsel for civil policy and practice
at the King County Department of Public Defense, writes
about things Washington State can do to stop forcing children into
out-of-state institutions and night-to-night placements in hotels – including
the one thing Washington State media never like to talk about.
