● The Minnesota
Spokesman Recorder has
two stories about racial
bias in child welfare in that state – a state that takes away children at
one of the highest rates in the country.
● A single mother in Muncie, Indiana, faced a choice: Stay
home and risk losing her job or go to work and leave her children home alone.
She chose the latter. She was arrested and jailed, before all charges were
dropped. Now, WTTV Indianapolis reports she’s
suing the police department. This earlier story has
more context about the case. But for what is still the best insight into
this whole issue, check
out this 2003 story from The New York
Times.
● New York City’s model of high-quality legal defense for
families has
been proven to safely reduce the time children are trapped in foster care.
But the lawyers are not assigned until the city’s child protective services
agency files a court petition – but since nearly half of all removals in New
York City are
so-called “emergencies,” in which the worker takes the child on-the-spot,
often the lawyer isn’t assigned until the child already is in foster care. The Chronicle
of Social Change reports
on legislation before the New York City Council that would change
this.
The bill is supported not only by lawyers for parents, but
also for the lawyers who regularly represent children in these cases. Rise,
the magazine written by parents caught up in the system, has some of
the testimony. (By the way, the New
York Post hates the bill – that alone should tell you how good it is.)
● And the legislature in Wyoming, a state that is always a
contender for foster-care capital of America is considering
legislation to bolster family defense.
