● The Columbia Journal of Race and Law is out with a second set of papers from the Strengthened Bonds symposium. I’ve only begun reading them, but I particularly want to call attention to this groundbreaking paper by Ashley Albert and Amy Mulzer. But read it only if you are ready to reconsider everything you think you know about adoption.
● NPR and The Marshall Project have a follow-up to their groundbreaking stories about family policing agencies swiping foster youth’s Social Security benefits. And Cal Matters reports on California counties that continue this odious practice.
● A doctor and a lawyer have some advice for people who may face a false allegation of child abuse. But, as I explain in this blog post, it should have been called “The middle-class white person’s guide to dealing with a child abuse allegation.”
● Even when it works right, the vastly overhyped Family First Act won’t do much good. But, as Mississippi Today reports, that state is managing to screw up what little opportunity there is.
● In Arizona, KJZZ Public Radio reports on a lawsuit demanding the standard of proof be raised before someone is blacklisted in that state’s central registry of alleged child abusers.
● Last week’s round-up reported on an innovative plan in some Wisconsin counties designed to help families with the housing they need to reunify with their children. One of the counties voted it down.
● NBC News reports that two senators are launching an investigation of some of America’s largest residential McTreatment chains. The good news: They’ve included one scandal-plagued nonprofit chain, Devereux. That’s important because too often reporters assume that if we could just get rid of the for-profit players everything would be fine. The bad news: The investigation appears based on the implicit premise that, with enough regulation, residential treatment can be fixed. But it can’t.
● And finally: Pope Francis set an example for the entire North American family policing establishment this week by apologizing for one of that establishment’s worst sins. Every one of the big, mainstream “child welfare” groups has so much to apologize for, not just in terms of what was done decades ago, but what they continue to do today. But don’t expect them to follow the Pope’s example anytime soon.
