● The big news this week includes publication of an outstanding new book. In Making Families, Breaking Families, child welfare’s foremost academic historian, Dr. Mical Raz, brings a scholar’s perspective to the story of the fearmongering and smears that ultimately led Congress to pass the so-called Adoption and Safe Families Act. Although the print edition won’t be out until later this month, the electronic edition is available now from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.
I’m proud that NCCPR and the work of several NCCPR Board Members are cited in discussing the efforts to fight back and set the record straight. The lessons from that time are urgent; there is much to be learned. And while it’s not pleasant to be reminded of how bad things got, it’s encouraging to see how far we’ve come.
● Reporters
for the Tampa Bay Times spent more than a year digging into “hidden
foster care” in Florida. Even if you think you know what that term means, and
even why it’s so harmful, I guarantee you’ll still be shocked by some of what
you’ll read. It is the best – and most horrifying -- story I’ve seen anywhere in the country on
the topic.
● The Baltimore Banner has a column, and Investigate West has a story that have something in common: Each illustrates the confusion of poverty with neglect. I have a blog post about it with links to both stories.
● And while both Maryland and Oregon are throwing away money on makeshift placements and/or institutions, The Imprint reports that California is moving in a better direction: bolstering “wraparound” services. The story does an excellent job of answering a question I get all the time: Yes, but what is wraparound anyway?
● You’d think it’s kind of obvious, but, The
Imprint reports, the federal government has sent out guidance to the
states reminding them that, when an adoption fails, they are not supposed to
keep paying subsidies to adoptive parents who aren’t adoptive parents anymore.
And states can require paperwork from those parents documenting that they are,
in fact, still the adoptive parents.
