Across the country there have been horrible stories about the failure of child protection courts to well, protect children.  Here in Minnesota, the latest example caused the elected county attorney to announce that his office had made a mistake.  They reversed their earlier recommendation to the court and asked, instead, that a mother’s parental rights be terminated.  See story in the Star Tribune: http://www.startribune.com/in-reversal-county-moves-to-terminate-mother-s-parental-rights/330457051/

What’s going on?  Are children in more danger than ever of wide spread abuse, neglect, or worse?

I have worked for years on these cases as a lawyer and have some ideas.  Here are three that may make a difference:

1.  People don’t realize that the laws in most states require the courts in child protection cases, to try any and everything in order to keep a family together.  There are moral and practical reasons for this.  Of course, most kids do best in a family of origin that loves them and has an extended family to help.  Practically, it”s much cheaper for the taxpayers to allow the family to pay for the child’s upbringing.  If a child is removed, he will probably end up in a foster home—which costs the local governments thousands of dollars a year in support.  Even if the parent is questionable, the courts are required to offer a case plan to the parent in an effort to change their behavior so that the child will be safe and nurtured in the home.  It is only in the extreme situation that a termination of parental rights will be decided.
2. For years, the media and public have pushed for more oversight of child protection issues.  At the same time, the public has asked that taxes be cut to local governments.  The result is a severe shortage of qualified social workers in the child protection area.  The ones who work there are swamped with case and, at best, are able to attend to only the worst cases and to simply put out fires in the rest of the cases.
3. A strong Guardian ad Litem program is essential.  These are, for the most part, trained volunteers who are assigned to take on the case of a child in the system.  The Guardian’s job is to check on the child’s welfare and report back to the court about concerns or failures on the part of either the parents or the government.  Like the social workers, they are under-funded and over worked with huge case loads.

Cutting back on taxes and government services is fine . . .  but then don’t expect that these same government workers will have the time and energy to sufficiently protect the children they are responsible for.