Tag: Child Welfare System
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Desperation Without Dignity: Just One More Reason to Keep Families Together!
If we’ve said it once, we’ve said it a thousand times – taking kids away from their families only to abandon them in youth homes is a terrible idea! And this report by a federally mandated watchdog group, the National Disability Rights Network, only serves to prove our point: Families should be supported in place,…
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What Happens After Someone Reports Child Abuse to The Authorities? (Pt 1)
We do all sorts of things in our daily lives, without ever stopping to wonder what happens after the small role we played in the process. Throw something into your trash can, and at the end of the week, set it out at the curb and never give it a second thought? Have you ever…
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Michigan’s New Adoption & Foster Care Task Force
Michigan’s broken child welfare system has long been a topic of hot debate. What’s wrong with it, who is to blame, and how to fix it are regular subjects of media scrutiny. But it seems the state itself has decided to take on this mammoth issue, and see if they can figure out some of…
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Involving Your Kids in Criminal Activity Might Cost You Your Parenting Rights in Michigan!
The idea of involving your children in criminal activity might sound strange to many parents, but believe it or not it happens. And some parents don’t even realize that what they’re doing is wrong, and could cost them their families! Teaching a child to slip a pair of earrings you can’t afford into their underwear…
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Even a Short Stay in Foster Care Can Have Detrimental Effects on a Child (Pt 2)
Hi there and welcome back. We’ve been talking about how foster care stays affect children’s mental and emotional wellbeing, and how even a very short stay in foster care can seriously hamper a child’s socio-emotional development. As we explained in the previous article, a recent study conducted by the Marshall Project showed that an astounding…
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What Happens When States Don’t Track Child Deaths Accurately? (Pt 2)
Welcome back and thanks for joining us. We’ve been looking at a recent study done by ProPublica, where they gathered data on abuse and neglect related child deaths from all 50 states, under the federal law (Child Abuse Treatment and Prevention Act, called CAPTA). Unsurprisingly, child welfare agencies in many states either refused to comply…
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What Happens When States Don’t Track Child Deaths Accurately? (Pt 1)
One of the challenges that agencies and departments in states around the U.S. face, the issue of double rules. Almost nowhere else in the world are agencies and organizations required to operate by following two completely different (and sometimes conflicting) sets of rules and regulations. In this case, the difficulty lies in being required to…
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Are States in The US Complying With CAPTA Laws For Kids Not in Foster Care? (Pt 2)
Welcome back and thanks for joining us again. We’ve been looking at the CAPTA laws (which if you remember from the previous article are the federal laws governing how US child welfare agencies handle kids who aren’t in the foster system) and discussing whether or not local agencies are actually following them. As we shared…