NCCPR news and commentary round-up, weeks ending January 13, 2026

 

 ● Of course, the biggest news of the past week is the publication of a blockbuster study on the relationship between the number of children family police agencies take away and child abuse deaths: The key finding: There is no relationship. Taking more children does not reduce child abuse deaths. Taking fewer children does not increase child abuse deaths. That means the “logic” behind America’s massive child welfare surveillance state collapses like a house of cards. I have a blog post with a link to the study and a discussion of things that really can reduce child abuse deaths. 

● There’s still another problem with the fanatical push by some take-the-child-and-run extremists to confiscate any child supposedly born with drugs in their system. In addition to the enormous, needless trauma this inflicts on children during the most important days of their lives, their first, in addition to driving women away from giving birth in hospitals and seeking prenatal care, in addition to the huge problem of false positive tests, ProPublica now reveals another: What constitutes a positive test result? There’s no uniform scientific standard. States are free to set any standard they want, or just let the testing lab decide. The result: 

The amount of opiates that upended [one new mother’s] life … was so minuscule that if she were an Air Force pilot, she could have had 200 times more in her system and still have been cleared to fly. 

● Massachusetts throws children into foster care at a rate 44% above the national average and institutionalizes children at a rate 80% above the national average. In this commentary for the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, NCCPR rebuts those who want to make things even worse. 

● The Center Square has an update on that case in Georgia in which a man was arrested for allegedly driving very, very drunk with his young children in the car, but the children were not taken away – and the police may not even have called in a report to the state child welfare agency. But they did call the head of the agency – to come pick up the kids, since her husband was the alleged drunk driver. Here’s how their story begins: 

In at least one way, Georgia’s child welfare agency has treated its chief administrator just like any other parent involved in a possible child endangerment investigation. 

By not disclosing anything about the case publicly at all. 

Nevertheless, The Center Square turned up some new information, and I’ve updated NCCPR’s blog post on the case to include it.

● Rhode Island’s family police agency plans to spend up to $26 million to buy and renovate the notorious "House of Pine-Sol" RTC and warehouse 16 girls there. I have a blog post about it. 

● The Indiana Capital Chronicle reports that Indiana is the latest state where a “reasonable childhood independence” bill has cleared a legislative committee. 

In this week’s edition of The Horror Stories Go in All Directions: 

● From Honolulu Civil Beat:

As Civil Beat was reporting last year on a foster dad who sexually preyed on and beat the boys in his care, the state intervened to prevent the release of court documents that detailed how it could have happened. … Now those documents are public. And they offer a rare glimpse into the workings of the child welfare system, and how a predator could go unchecked for more than two decades. 

● From the Spokane Spokesman-Review: 

A Spokane girl was hit, neglected and sexually assaulted by her foster family for seven years as state workers documented the abuse but failed to remove her from the home, a new lawsuit against the state alleges.