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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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The $20 million boondoggle that perfectly illustrates the banality of child welfare thinking

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

But it’s hard to imagine anything that more perfectly captures the banality of child welfare thinking than this waste of $20 million: Five organizations will spend this federal grant money to create a “Quality Improvement Center on Engaging Youth in Finding Permanency.” There are many such groups. Oh, don’t get me wrong.

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Maine’s child welfare ombudsman is dangerously wrong

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

Maine's first child welfare ombudsman, Dean Crocker, understood the lessons from the tragic death of Logan Marr, who was taken when her family poverty was confused with "neglect" and killed in foster care. For starters, Maine should join the many states in which child welfare court hearings are open.

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Two stories about “shortages” in Massachusetts “child welfare.” One got it right.

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

Also last month NPR interviewed Julie Lurie of Mother Jones about her story concerning prolonged delays in initial hearings for families after the state family police agency – entirely on its own authority – rushes in and takes away the children. She told NPR: So you have a number of problems. How did Massachusetts get into this mess?

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Lessons from two child welfare court decisions

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

A mid-level appeals court overturned the ban on recording interviews but upheld everything else. Vivek Sankaran, director of the Child Advocacy Law Clinic and the Child Welfare Appellate Clinic at the University Michigan Law School summed it up perfectly: In many ways, the decision was unexceptional. Lawyers would scream.

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Child Protective Services in the District of Columbia: An alarming increase in incomplete investigations in FY2024

Child Welfare Monitor

by Marie Cohen This post was originally published on Child Welfare Monitor DC on December 9, 2024. Because I rarely post on that site, I am letting it expire and will include future DC-focused posts on Child Welfare Monitor.

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

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

See also: The review in The New Yorker The review in Publisher’s Weekly Asgarian’s interview with the Los Angeles Times And after that, you can sign up for Asgarian’s April 6 book talk with the upEND Movement at the University of Houston (it’s both in person and livestreamed). Emphasis added.]

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