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. …
