Reinstating Parental Rights
Not all children whose parents' parental rights have been terminated by a court end up with a new family. In fact, many youth never achieve permanency, but instead remain in some kind of out-of-home care until they age out of the foster care system.
In a new journal article, "Reinstating Parental Rights: Another Path to Permanency?", authors Susan Getman and Steve Christian explore the option of reuniting these youth with their birth parents. In a handful of States, State law permits the parents' parental rights to be restored; in other States, the path to legal ...
Zero Tolerance is Not the Answer to Sexting
From the University of New Hampshire: Rigid, zero-tolerance policies to prevent sexting that do not allow for discretion and the ability to address sexting in the context of the situation are ineffective strategies for dealing with this troubling trend, according to a University of New Hampshire professor who studies legal issues in education.
“Zero tolerance for sexting, without an understanding of context, replaces common sense with a rigid response that may be equally administered but is not fair. Turning over alleged sexters to the police for criminal prosecu...
DOJ Interpretation Guts VAWA Protections
Okay, so maybe sexually exploited children don't get you activated. I'll admit it's an unpleasant niche most people would rather not think about. And the child pornography restitution statute which is being considered by federal district courts across the country and in several courts of appeal will arguably affect a relatively small number of victims.
A closer look, however, reveals that the child pornography restitution statute, 18 U.S.C. 2259, is exactly the same as two other restitution statutes which were enacted at the same time. The first is the sex abuse restitu...
Homeschooling and Child Protection
Homeschooling is parent-directed education that meets the requirements for regular school attendance. The U.S. Department of Education in its 2007 National Household Education Survey estimated that “1.5 million students (1,508,000) were homeschooled in the United States.”[1] In that same study, parents were asked why they homeschooled their children. “The three reasons selected by parents of more than two-thirds of students were concern about the school environment, to provide religious or moral instruction, and dissatisfaction with the academic instru...
Fallen Angel in Adoption
As many of you know, The Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute’s (CCAI) Angels in Adoption™ Program provides Members of Congress the opportunity to honor an individual, couple, or organization from their district that have made an extraordinary contribution on behalf of children in need of homes. I have long supported this effort and any effort to raise awareness about the needs of foster and adopted children.
Back in November, I discovered that none other then Penn State child molester Jerry Sandusky was honored as an Angel in Adoption back in 2002. ...
Complex Data Gathering Results in State Adoption Totals
A publication from Child Welfare Information Gateway now available online provides estimates of total adoption numbers for the 50 States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.
How Many Children Were Adopted in 2007-2008? was developed with assistance from Gene Flango, Ph.D., of the National Center for State Courts and offers key findings on the numbers of public, intercountry, and other adoptions as well as data sources and cautionary notes. This publication, which will be updated periodically, provides a single source of recent statistical information on the ...
Fifth Circuit Decides to Reconsider Restitution Victory
If you're awake and you've been following this blog for any length of time, your probably know that during the past two years, victims of child pornography (represented by the Marsh Law Firm and pioneering attorneys Paul G. Cassell and Carol L. Hepburn ) have been seeking restitution in federal courts throughout the country.
Using a long forgotten passage in the Violence Against Women Act championed by then-Senator Joe Biden in 1994, child sex abuse victims are asking federal judges to award the mandatory restitution guaranteed by this law.
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