● America’s leading journalism think tank and training center, the Poynter Institute, published an article on “How to cover child welfare — and not just the system.” Some of the advice on sourcing struck me as particularly insightful :-)
● Prof. Kelley
Fong, co-author of the landmark study showing that more foster care does not
reduce child abuse deaths, writes in the Sacramento Bee
about better ways to keep children safe.
● Getting
placed on a state “central register” of alleged child abusers is incredibly
easy – in most states a caseworker just has to check a box on a form. Getting
off again is incredibly hard. Most states have an administrative appeals
process, but the deck is stacked – impoverished families have no right to a
lawyer – and the process can drag on for months, even years. Meanwhile, the
poverty that may have been confused with neglect in the first place can deepen,
because the listing often bars those listed from many jobs. And, of
course, the listing drives up a family’s “risk score,” making it more likely
that if there’s another investigation, the children will be needlessly thrown
into foster care. The Imprint
and The New York Times have stories
on a lawsuit demanding that at least the prolonged delays end in New York
State.
● An Alaska legislator has an idea for an approach to
keeping siblings together that, as far as I know, would be unique in the
nation. The
Alaska Beacon reports on a bill that would change the state’s law
concerning termination of children’s rights to their parents (a more accurate
term than termination of parental rights) so that children’s rights to their
siblings would be maintained.
