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Reposting: Torn apart: A skewed portrait of child welfare in America

Child Welfare Monitor

As an illustration, I am reposting my 2022 review of Roberts’ most recent book, Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families–and How Abolition Can Build a Safer Worl d. child welfare system. See my commentary on the abuse homicides of Rashid Bryant and Julissia Batties , for example).

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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. She spent half of her life in foster care, struggling with substance abuse. Also silenced are our allies, who are shamed for wanting to pursue a career in child welfare.

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The fundamental misconception at the heart of the Family First Act

Child Welfare Monitor

States have been hard-put to devise plans for implementing the new services because the bill was designed to fix a problem that did not exist–the alleged absence of child welfare services designed to help families stay together. ” As the Child Welfare Information Gateway, an information clearinghouse of the U.S.

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How the journalism of child welfare fails

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

I single these stories out not because they are exceptionally awful - there’s far worse out there - but precisely because they are so typical of the journalism of child welfare. The stories blithely attribute West Virginia’s high rate of removal to the fact that “More than half entered the system because of a parent’s substance abuse.”

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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. Thus, the increase in referrals may well be a sign of increasing maltreatment.

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When it comes to the problems plaguing “child welfare” wrongful removal drives everything else – including caseworker turnover. Case in point: Massachusetts

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

Taking a child under those circumstances causes the child even more trauma than taking the child for other reasons – that’s one reason it’s illegal to do it in New York. According to the story, Toscano’s husband was also cited for substance abuse, according to DCF records she shared with the Globe.

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As foster care removals plummet, where’s the promised help for families?

Child Welfare Monitor

Supporters of the Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA), which passed in 2018, said that declining foster care counts would result from providing support to parents who needed help to address the problems (like substance abuse, mental illness and poor parenting skills) that led to their maltreatment of their children.