Throwing foster kids out of court is nothing to gloat about

…and the fact that the Alaska family police agency is gloating at kids’ expense says everything you need to know about that agency. 

A federal judge in Alaska has thrown out one of those typical McLawsuits brought by the latest group Marcia Lowry founded to bring such McLawsuits, A Better Childhood. (ABC is the group Marcia founded after leaving Children’s Rights, which now has effectively rejected Lowry’s approach. She founded Children’s Rights after leaving the ACLU, which now has effectively rejected Lowry’s approach. She joined the ACLU after leaving the New York Civil Liberties Union, which now has effectively rejected Lowry’s approach.) 

Alaska’a family police agency, the Office of Children’s Services, is gloating about this, falsely claiming it's some sort of vindication for them. For reasons discussed below, it is nothing of the sort. 

I wrote a column for the Alaska Beacon criticizing the lawsuit – for the same reasons I criticize almost all the nearly identical McLawsuits Lowry has brought. But unlike OCS, I’m not gloating. That’s because the reason the Alaska McLawsuit would have failed, even had it been allowed to proceed, is not that it was wrong about the problems – its condemnation of Alaska foster care was almost certainly spot on. The problem is that, as usual, the McLawsuit ignored the only solution that has a chance of working: Alaska needs to stop tearing apart families at the fifth-highest rate in America, a rate nearly triple the national average. 

Dismissing the lawsuit won’t advance real solutions – it will just make it easier for OCS to hide the problems. 

Contrary to what OCS implies, the lawsuit was not dismissed because of anything having to do with the merits of the case against the system. It was dismissed only because A Better Childhood and its co-counsel couldn’t show that the children chosen to represent an entire class of foster children, known as “named plaintiffs,” were personally affected by the alleged failures. (This is not the first time there have been questions about how Marcia Lowry has chosen named plaintiffs.) 

The real failing in the lawsuit also is the failing at the heart of a column in the Beacon by Les Gara. Gara writes from personal as well as professional experience. He’s a former foster child as well as a former state legislator. But he condemns OCS only for not doing things the legislature ordered it to do in 2018: lower caseloads, recruit more foster parents, recruit more caseworkers – in other words, the usual. But whether it’s caseworkers or foster parents, you can’t recruit your way out of a crisis caused by tearing apart families at one of the most obscene rates in America. A laser-focus on curbing wrongful removal is the essential prerequisite for fixing any system, especially an extreme outlier like Alaska. 

One constructive solution Gara does embrace is making greater use of kinship foster care. OCS replies that Alaska’s percentage of children placed in this form of foster care is above the national average. Gara replies that the proportion actually appears to be declining. Both are correct. But as Gara points out, “The reality is most states do poorly on foster care work. Comparing bad apples to bad apples isn’t much of a goal.” 

So, what next? A Better Childhood might appeal the dismissal of the suit. A better option would be for better lawyers to start over and bring a better lawsuit.

NCCPR news and commentary round-up, week ending April 1, 2026

● You know what the take-the-child-and-run crowd says about the rampant confusion of poverty with neglect, right? Well, it’s not poverty alone; thry say, there’s something else, like domestic violence. Often that’s not true. But it certainly was true in the Georgia case described in this column for The Imprint. But as you read the story, consider how things would have played out if the domestic violence that started it all took place in, say, a McMansion in Berkeley Lake, instead of a homeless shelter. And consider what it was that kept the family apart for three years – because it wasn’t domestic violence. Or, just compare the handling of the case to this other, actual case from Georgia. It all illustrates why the “it’s not poverty alone” argument is a red herring.

● The first time California’s private foster care agencies sought a $30 million taxpayer bailout, they said the sky would fall if they had to close. They got the bailout. Twenty-four agencies closed anyway. As I write in Cal Matters, before giving them another bailout, perhaps lawmakers should step outside and look up. 

● The Imprint reports on a new study finding that, when it comes to tearing apart indigenous families, the United States has a record that is, of course, awful. Other countries are even worse. From the story: 

Discussing the study with The Imprint, [one of the authors] said he was most struck by the study’s findings that despite disparities in these “very different societies, we see these continuous patterns.’’ 

● Sometimes in other countries, as in the United States, to have your children taken, you just have to be different. Fox News reports on what happened to a deeply religious Romanian family living in Sweden. From the story: 

[The father] shared videos with Fox News Digital of his daughters pleading to be reunited with their family and of his eldest daughter describing her suicide attempts while in state care. 

That should come as no surprise, given that a Swedish study found that children in that nation’s foster care system were four times more likely to die by age 20 even than comparably-maltreated children left in their own homes (and in this case, there appears to have been no maltreatment at all). The most common cause of death for the foster children: suicide. 

● And finally, NCCPR’s annual reminder: If it’s April Fools’, it must be Child Abuse Hype and Hysteria Month.

Our annual reminder: If it's April Fools', it must be Child Abuse Hype and Hysteria Month

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED APRIL 1, 2010 , MOST RECENT UPDATE:  MARCH 21, 2026.

Back in 2003, one of the groups most responsible for fomenting hype and hysteria about child abuse came remarkably close to admitting that they did just that – and that it had backfired. 

Rather like Dr. Frankenstein admitting he’d created a monster, in a 2003 Request for Proposals concerning how to improve their messaging, Prevent Child Abuse America wrote: 

While the establishment of a certain degree of public horror relative to the issue of child abuse and neglect was probably necessary in the early years to create public awareness of the issue, the resulting conceptual model adopted by the public has almost certainly become one of the largest barriers to advancing the issue further in terms of individual behavior change, societal solutions and policy priorities. 

In 2020, PCAA went further. They actually branded what they had done “health terrorism” – but refused to apologize for it. 

This is especially worth remembering as we begin “Child Abuse Awareness Month” – a month, which, appropriately, starts on April Fools Day. 

So I’ve reprinted below our 2010 blog post on the topic – with some updates and links to newer data – since, unfortunately, aside from those data, little has changed. Because it's a lot easier to create a monster than to bring it under control.

If it's April Fools', it must be Child Abuse Hype and Hysteria Month

Get ready for a seemingly endless stream of cookie-cutter news stories and Astroturf op-ed columns (the kind written by national groups with blanks to fill in to make them sound home-grown) touting "Child Abuse Awareness Month" – based on the bizarre premise that the American people are blissfully unaware of child abuse. 

There is something appropriate about the fact that "Child Abuse Awareness Month" starts on April Fools' Day, since it involves fooling the public in order to push an agenda of hype and hysteria that obscures the real nature of the problem, and real solutions, in favor of approaches that only make a serious and real problem worse. Your typical Child Abuse Awareness month news story or op-ed column follows a standard formula: 

1.  1. Take the most horrifying case to occur in your community over the past year, the more lurid the better.

2.   2. Jump immediately from that story to a gigantic number which actually is only the number of "reports" alleging any form of child maltreatment. Ignore the fact that the vast majority of those reports are false and most of the rest are nothing like the horror story. Rather, they often involve the confusion of poverty with neglect. Or…

3.   3.  Use only the total number of cases that caseworkers guess might be true, but call them "confirmed," giving the guesses, which are simply the opinion of a worker checking a box on a form, far more credibility than they deserve. A major federal study found that workers are two- to six-times more likely to wrongly label an innocent family guilty than to wrongly label real child abusers innocent.

4.   4. Pile hype onto hype by reasserting the racist, discredited COVID-19 “pandemic of child abuse” myth.  (Now that we know child abuse actually went down when COVID forced the family police to step back, and simply because memories of COVID are fading, that myth seems to pop up less often.)

5.    5. Throw in huge lists of "symptoms" or "warning signs" that "might" be "signs" of child abuse – and might as easily be signs of any number of other things.

6.     6. Instruct us all that it is our duty to phone the local child abuse hotline with any suspicion of anything no matter how vague and how dubious – instead of cautioning us about the harm of even well-meaning false reports and advising us to report when we have "reasonable cause to suspect" actual maltreatment - not poverty -- the same standard theoretically used in law to guide "mandated reporters."  

      7. Remind us that we are welcome to call the hotline anonymously – thereby encouraging those who want to harass an ex-spouse, a neighbor or anyone else against whom they may have a grudge to go right ahead, secure in the knowledge that they'll never get caught because they can conceal their identity. (Fortunately, in most cases in Texas and New York, you can't do that anymore.)

Of course, given that the child welfare establishment has no shame, in recent years the usual op-eds have included token boilerplate statements about racial justice – even as these establishment groups propose making a profoundly racist family policing system, one that will, at some point investigate the families of more than half of America's Black children, even bigger and more powerful.  But watch what they do, not what they say.  Are they proposing anything that would actually curb the power of the family police, or just tacking on the usual “prevention” programs and blathering about “more training."

All of this can do enormous harm to children.  

Hotlines wind up with more false reports and trivial cases; children are harassed and traumatized by needless child abuse investigations – often including stripsearches as caseworkers look for bruises - and some of those children are forced needlessly into foster care. The caseworkers wind up even more overloaded by these false allegations, so they have even less time to find children in real danger.  

Reality check 

NCCPR has some resources on our website for any journalists and others interested in putting all this into context, countering the hype and hysteria and pressing for real solutions: 

·        -- Issue papers on Understanding Child Abuse Numbers, False Allegations: What the Data Really Show. The Failure of Mandatory Reporting,  and many more.

·        -- Solutions pages: Our Due Process Agenda, Doing Child Welfare Right and the NCCPR Good Bill Bank.

·        -- Our presentation on how to really prevent child abuse: take a social justice approach instead of a public health approach. And our warning to be cautious when you hear the phrase "child and family well-being system."

If the people behind "Child Abuse Awareness Month"  (also known as "Child Abuse Prevention Month") really want to prevent "child abuse" then how about campaigning to ameliorate the worst effects of poverty?  

Poverty increases the stress that can lead to actual abuse and, as noted above, poverty itself often is confused with "neglect." This can be seen by the fact that study after study shows even small increases in income significantly reduce what child welfare systems call "neglect."

The problem of child abuse is serious and real, but the solutions have been phony. The distortion and exaggeration that typify child abuse "awareness" campaigns only promote phony solutions and make those serious, real problems even worse.

If only there were a Statistics Abuse Prevention Month.

NCCPR in Cal Matters: California shouldn’t bail out beleaguered foster family agencies

California’s private foster care agencies are running back to Sacramento, demanding another taxpayer bailout to cover rising insurance costs. Cal Matters reported recently that the state’s foster family agencies want another $30 million, on top of the $31.5 million they got last year. 

One of the many reasons these agencies should not get a bailout — or any other help — can be found in the very reason they’re in trouble: … 

Read the full column in Cal Matters 

NCCPR in the Louisiana Illuminator: Who’s doing child welfare better than Louisiana? Here’s the answer.

Confronted with the failure of the Department of Children and Family Services, lawmakers and administrators in Louisiana have responded the way they do in most states … None of this worked. It never does. But at least now one Louisiana lawmaker, Sen. Thomas Pressly, is asking the right question.

“Someone has to be doing it better,” Pressly asked DCFS Secretary Rebecca Harris last week,  wanting to know who. … 

Read the answer, and the full column, in the Louisiana Illuminator

NCCPR news and commentary round-up, week ending March 25, 2026

We start this week with three items from New York City, and my usual reminder: New York has one of the least bad systems in the country; wherever you are, it’s probably worse.

● You know how family police agencies love to say, “We can’t remove children – only a judge can do that!” It is, of course, a lie. And here, first from Gothamist and then the New York Post, is the latest example: 

A lawsuit alleges that an 11-month-old was torn from the arms of her mother and taken away, screaming “mama” – cries that could be heard a block away -- after the city family police agency, the Administration for Children’s Services, decided there was no safety threat in the home. The mother was never so much as accused of abuse or neglect. Nobody asked a judge first. When a judge did get to hear the case, five days after the removal, the judge ordered the child returned, but still placed the mother under months of onerous surveillance. This kind of never-mind-the-judge-just-take-the-child-and-run removal happens in half of all entries into foster care in New York City. 

● A new commissioner for ACS could change that. In the Daily News, Sandy Santana, executive director of Children’s Rights, writes about the kind of leader Mayor Zohran Mamdani should be looking for: 

The next commissioner must be willing to acknowledge past failures, center the voices of youth and families who have experienced the system’s harm, and prioritize racial justice in every decision. They must understand that supporting families and protecting children are aligned, not competing priorities. Without this type of bold leadership, the results are predictable: families investigated for material hardship and over-burdened systems that miss opportunities to keep children safe. 

● The federal Family First Act reimburses only a small group of “preventive services,” – and that small group does not include what most families need most: concrete help. But, the New York City Family Policy Project and Action Research point out, once the federal reimbursement comes in, those funds can be used for all the good stuff Family First itself won’t fund. The amounts are small, and not every state is even participating, but it’s a small opportunity that shouldn’t go to waste. Though the data are specific to New York, the principle applies in any state. 

In other news: 

● At a recent legislative hearing in Louisiana, one lawmaker, frustrated with the failures of the state family police agency, said “Someone has to be doing it better.” He wanted to know who. NCCPR answers his question in the Louisiana Illuminator.

● Maryland is going to spend more than $1 billion over five years to fund 637 beds for foster children. At that price, we’re not talking family foster homes, we’re talking institutionalization. You can guess who will be disproportionately institutionalized. I thought of that when I read this column in The Imprint from two former top officials of the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services. It shows how this kind of horror goes back centuries. 

● Former Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin has been held in contempt for failing to provide financial records to a court hearing a case brought by his estranged Ethiopian adopted son. As the Kentucky Lantern reports, Jonah Bevin “alleges his affluent parents abandoned him at age 17 in a brutally abusive youth facility in Jamaica.” Jonah is now seeking financial support. 

And, the Kentucky Lantern reports, there’s also this: 

Three Republican lawmakers have filed a bill that would bar children from intervening in a parent’s divorce case and limit their ability to obtain child support. … While the proposed bill doesn’t mention the parents’ divorce pending in Jefferson Family Court, the legislation tracks developments in the case in which Jonah Bevin, now 19, has intervened and is seeking support. 

Two of the bill’s three sponsors, Rep. Steven Doan, R-Erlanger, and Rep. John Hodgson, R-Fisherville, worked in the Bevin administration …

NCCPR in Youth Today: Children suffer when child welfare ignores the evidence base

In an evidence-based world, one recent landmark study of foster care would be enough to give America’s child welfare establishment second thoughts. Add to that a second study — with findings the study author called “staggering” — and it should be enough to turn the entire system on its head. 

These studies undermine the entire rationale for a child welfare surveillance apparatus so huge that more than one-third of all children, and more than half of Black children, will be forced to endure the trauma of a child abuse investigation before they turn 18 — and almost always it will turn out to be a false allegation or a case in which family poverty is confused with neglect. And though entries into foster care have declined in recent years, more than 170,000 children are torn from everyone they know and love and consigned to the chaos of foster care every year. … 

Read the full column in Youth Today