● ICYMI: Video is now available of the excellent American
Bar Association webinar on how child welfare systems should respond to the
coronavirus crisis. Speakers included the Associate Comissioner of the
Children’s Bureau Jerry Milner and his Special Assistant, David Kelly. The ABA
also has some excellent additional resources. It’s
all available here.
● Sadly, many places are ignoring the federal guidance. One
state child welfare agency in particular, has gone to extremes. It’s even trying
to work around its own State Supreme Court to inflict emotional child abuse on
a grand scale. What state would be so cruel? No, not Mississippi. No, not
Texas. It’s Vermont. Read
all about the proposed Vermont Anti-Hugging Law.
● To get a sense of just how much such laws and policies can
hurt children, read the
account of one parent, Michelle Chan, in Truthout.
● There’s been the usual run of hype and hysteria over how
the sky is falling because there are fewer calls to child abuse hotlines.
(Here’s why the
sky really isn’t falling.) But there have been some notable exceptions both
among journalists and child welfare officials:
--Uptown Radio, a production of students at the Columbia
University Graduate School of Journalism, took what is, sadly, an unusual
approach to this issue: They
looked at all sides.
--The child welfare agency in Butler County, Ohio is taking
a more nuanced stance than most – and working hard to ensure that family
preservation services continue.
--And California Gov. Gavin Newsom understands that the best
“prevention program” for what child welfare agencies call “child abuse” is also
the simplest: 1. Find the poor families most at risk of losing their children
to foster care. 2. Send
money. And here’s more about the transformative
power of cash.
● But, of course, the child welfare establishment is busy
trying to cash in on the crisis by seeking billions
for more of the same. This after already receiving a windfall in the first
coronavirus relief bill.
In other news:
● From Yasmeen Khan of WNYC Public Radio in Gothamist: A
story about another outstanding measure to prevent child neglect by preventing
poverty. reforms to New York State’s blacklist of alleged child abusers. The blacklist prevents those on it, who are
mostly poor, from getting many jobs – including those most likely to be filled
by poor people. As child advocate Joyce McMillan told Gothamist: “How does sentencing parents to poverty keep children safe?”
