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Texas tragedy is foster-care failure in microcosm

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

KABB-TV in San Antonio reported this week on the tragic death of 16-year-old Mia Morales who died in a car crash after running away from a makeshift foster care placement. It’s remarkable how many tragic failings of Texas foster care – and the failed attempt to fix it with a McLawsuit – are illustrated by this one case.

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Pushing back on a child welfare poll full of loaded questions

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

Have a look: The only good news for the family police came from the fact that, apparently, only a minority of respondents agreed with the statement “Overall, the foster care system harms more than helps the children in its care.” There is no mention of seeking to recapture the spirit of the Indian Child Welfare Act.

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Some good, bad and ugly in new federal “child welfare” data

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

The federal government has released state-by-state data for the number of children taken from their parents in FFY 2021 (yes, they always run about a year late). The big national takeaway is that these data – once again – refute the racist myth about COVID-19 and “child welfare.” And NCCPR has updated our rate-of-removal index.

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Massachusetts pilots the most promising reform in child welfare. Guess who’s trying to undercut it.

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

This is the model that’s proven so successful in New York City – where a comprehensive evaluation found that it reduced time in foster care with no compromise of safety. If you’ve followed Massachusetts child welfare at all, you know exactly who: Massachusetts’ Fearmonger-in-Chief, state “child advocate” Maria Mossaides.

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Why “permanency” is the “creme” of child welfare (and other problems with a new "report" from Charles Murray’s favorite think tank).

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

Her new “report” on “permanency” for the American Enterprise Institute, home of Charles Murray , is so full of false premises and false promises that perhaps “permanency” is to child welfare what “creme” is to food. She’s even right that the more time a child spends in foster care the greater the risk of harm.

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A child welfare case leads to a stunning dissent from Michigan’s Chief Justice

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

More than just a dissent in an individual case, this opinion is a call to transform “child welfare” in Michigan – and everywhere else. is a brilliant dissection of the failings of both law and practice in “child welfare” in Michigan and pretty much everywhere else in America. In contrast, McCormack wrote, when Washington D.C.

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The $20 million boondoggle that perfectly illustrates the banality of child welfare thinking

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

But it’s hard to imagine anything that more perfectly captures the banality of child welfare thinking than this waste of $20 million: Five organizations will spend this federal grant money to create a “Quality Improvement Center on Engaging Youth in Finding Permanency.” And the government could still achieve the alleged purpose of this grant.