● In his Reliable Sources newsletter last Friday, CNN media reporter Brian Stelter documents how the Trump Administration fans fear of crime with argument-by-anecdote to drown out the data showing that crime has decreased. Mainstream media aren’t falling for it. So why do so many keep falling for it when the topic is child welfare? I have a blog post about it, with a link to the full newsletter.
● In a recent case in his state, Prof. Vivek Sankaran writes in Bridge Michigan
CPS made the right call by not needlessly separating these children from their family. But somewhere along the way, we’ve taken the right lesson — that poverty is not neglect — and twisted it into an excuse for inaction. …
Michigan lawmakers should take this moment to separate the functions of child protection and child welfare. Let CPS investigate serious abuse and neglect. But create a parallel, well-funded infrastructure whose sole mission is to stabilize families, address poverty and keep children safe without separating them from their parents.
● The Imprint reports on what is believed to be the first national survey of current and former Native American foster youth. One of those responding wrote:
“Our connection to culture, land, and community is not optional — it’s vital. When those ties are broken by placement in non-Native homes or systems that don’t understand our identity, it creates deep, long-term harm. Too often, Indigenous youth in care are expected to adapt to systems that weren’t built for us — systems that have historically contributed to our displacement and trauma.’’
● In Reason, Lenore Skenazy reprints a letter from a Virginia mother whose family had been repeatedly harassed, and their children traumatized, when child protective services investigated them – for letting the children play outside. Fortunately, Virginia has passed a Reasonable Childhood Independence law. But even so, check out what families have to go through:
[E]ven with the legislation we helped to pass, my kids are hesitant to exercise their independence. Few people know that parents have the right to decide what their children are capable of handling. I have equipped my kids with a "license" that they keep on them when they roam our small, rural neighborhood. It says across the top in big, bold letters "MY PARENTS KNOW I'M HERE" and includes information about SB1367 (Virginia's Reasonable Childhood Independence law) as well as my name and phone number. My children have been stopped by neighbors, produced their license, and thankfully were then left unbothered.
It's even worse, of
course, in the 39 states that don’t have Reasonable Childhood Independence
laws, so children can be caught playing outside without a “license.”
● Also in Reason, Skenazy points out that all the restrictions on children’s ability to play freely and interact IRL are part of what’s driving their addiction to their phones.
● It’s good to see the Minnesota Star Tribune widening the range of viewpoints it will publish on child welfare. In this column, Amelia Franck Meyer of Alia Innovations explains why Minnesota needs those great new child welfare laws to improve child safety and well-being.
● But plenty of bad laws remain in Minnesota, including a draconian law that forces schools to call CPS on any family where a child under age 12 has had seven unexcused absences. In contrast, more than half the states don’t include “educational neglect” as part of CPS’ responsibilities at all. Educational neglect allegations also are a potent way for school districts to shut up parents who are demanding things like the kind of special education plan a child is entitled to by law.
As the respected Vera Institute of Justice found long ago, for older children “educational neglect” should not be part of CPS’ domain, period, and for younger children there should be strict limits. Among other things, their study refuted the widely-held myth that “educational neglect” is a sort of “gateway allegation” signaling that horrible things are happening in the family.
At a minimum, such reports should be discretionary. But in the absence of either getting rid of the category or allowing discretion, The Imprint reports, some school districts in Minnesota have received funding to reach out to help families first, so they never reach that seven-day mark. Unfortunately, the story gives unjustified credence to the whole “gateway allegation” myth, never mentions all those states that don’t deem “educational neglect” a CPS responsibility at all, and never mentions the issue of harassment.
● On the NCCPR Blog,
I write briefly about Paul Vincent and Karl Dennis, two heroes the child
welfare field lost recently. The Imprint
also has stories about Vincent and Dennis.
