COVID-19 related:
● Two weeks ago I
posted a blog about double standards concerning educating children online.
Wealthy parents who can’t hack it get a pass – and sometimes even plaudits –
while poor parents get reported for “educational neglect.” We found out about
what happened to poor parents thanks to a story from the online news site The City. Now they
have a follow-up, including a demand for answers from New York City’s
Public Advocate.
● In Chicago, the Cook County Public Defender has
filed a lawsuit to overturn Illinois’ blanket ban on in-person visits
between foster children and their parents and siblings. Public Defender Amy Campanelli has
an op-ed column about the issue in the Chicago
Sun-Times.
● Elizabeth Brico has a story in Talk Poverty on the harm to children when in-person visits are
banned – including the longterm harm even after the pandemic is over.
● Stateline has
an overview of some of the states that have banned visits.
● Paul DiLorenzo, who for many years ran the consulting
operation for Casey Family Programs, has a column in the Chronicle of Social Change called Questioning
the Inevitability of a Child Welfare Surge.
● I have a
blog post about a “child advocacy center” that discovered that the best way
to prevent child abuse is to prevent poverty.
Unfortunately, it took a pandemic for them to figure it out.
In other news:
● Prof. Christopher Church of the University of South
Carolina School of Law has an excellent
15-minute video overview of how the child welfare system goes wrong and
why, including data on wrongful removal:
● Mathangi Swaminathan has
a column in the Chronicle of Social
Change on the need to expand what can be funded under the Family First
Prevention Services Act and how it’s determined what programs quality for
funding.
● Prof. Robert Latham, associate director of the Children and
Youth Law Clinic at the University of Miami School of Law, has
a blog post about a good federal appellate court decision on a host of
issues, including children’s Fourth Amendment rights during child abuse
investigations, the misuse of drug testing, and coercing families into foregoing
all due process protections and accepting so-called “safety plans.” The
full decision is here.
