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Seven children and all she needed was a van: large families and the blindness of the child welfare establishment

Child Welfare Monitor

But today’s post focuses on one particularly jarring vignette–the story of a mother, her seven children, and a van–and what it means about how child welfare policy is made and discussed today. David Reed, the Deputy Director of Child Welfare Services in Indiana, introduced the story of this family in his testimony.

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Torn Apart: How the Abolition Movement Destroys Foster Youth – And How Listening To Us Can Build A Safer World

Child Welfare Monitor

by Patty Flores I am grateful to be publishing this essay by a gifted and needed young voice in the child welfare space. I then found myself in foster care and having to navigate the complicated child welfare system, speaking little English and knowing nothing about how the child protection system (CPS) works in this country.

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A new book unsettles assumptions about “child welfare” foster care and adoption

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

You probably remember the story: White adoptive parents of six black children drive themselves and the children off a cliff, killing them all. She found children who not only never should have been placed with the adoptive parents who killed them; they never needed to be placed with strangers at all.

Adoption 105
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An adopted foster child dies in Hawaii – but nobody seems to be asking the right questions

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

Ariel Sellers, as she was known before her adoption, was reported missing by her foster/adoptive parents. They say Hawaii’s family police agency, known as “Child Welfare Services” (CWS) ignored them. ? They say Hawaii’s family police agency, known as “Child Welfare Services” (CWS) ignored them. ? Honolulu police dept.

Adoption 105
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Celebrate National Adoption Day November 23

Social Work Blog

NASW Senior Practice Associate, School Social Work and Child Welfare. November 23rd marks National Adoption Day. In 1976, Governor Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts decided to celebrate adoption for seven days in his state. Eight years later, President Ronald Regan expanding the observance to becoming National Adoption Week.

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A Pennsylvania case illustrates again why, for children, “best interests of the child” is among the most dangerous phrases in the “child welfare” lexicon

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

But once home from the hospital, the children still are left in foster care – with foster parents who are eager to adopt. They move to change the case goal for the children from reunification to adoption. The fundamental fact of American “child welfare” is that if you’re not white and affluent the system will discriminate against you.

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Look who’s embraced US “best practice” in “child welfare”!

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

Yes, it’s this guy: It’s tough being part of America’s “child welfare” establishment these days. Americans are catching on to the harm done by a massive child welfare surveillance state that falsely equates child removal with child safety, and investigates the homes of more than half of all Black children. Well, of course!