State v. Nguyen

In this Oregon case, the parents appealed a judgment terminating their parental rights in their three-year-old son Matthew. They argued that the state failed to prove by clear and convincing evidence that they are unfit parents, that reintegration into their home is improbable within a reasonable time because they are unlikely to change, and that termination of their parental rights was in Matthew's best interest. The TPR was filed after one of the parents inflicted serious abuse on Matthew's sibling, four-month old Martha, repeatedly breaking her limbs and fracturing her skull. The lower court found that the other parent was aware of that conduct ...

HHS Awards Almost $15 Million in Adoption Bonuses

Last week HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson announced almost $15 million in adoption bonuses paid to 25 states and Puerto Rico for increasing the number of children adopted from state-supervised foster care in fiscal year 2002. In states that qualified for bonuses, 3,703 more children were adopted in fiscal year 2002 than in the previous year. The highest award was Florida with an eye popping $3.5 million in bonuses. New Jersey got almost $2 million. Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Wisconsin each got around $1.1 million. HHS reports that around 51,000 foster children are adopted each year. President Bush wants to extend the adoption bonus program in ...

GAO Report on Title IV-B

Title IV-B of the Social Security Act is the primary source of federal funding for services to help families address problems that lead to child abuse and neglect and to prevent the unnecessary separation of children from their families. Title IV-B is divided into two parts. States can use subpart 1 funds on almost any child welfare activity. Subpart 2 provides grants to states for similar types of child welfare services, such as family support services to enhance family stability and services to help parents reunify with a child in foster care, but is more restrictive in how the funds can be spent. In fiscal year 2003, appropriations were $292 ...

Safe Haven Laws

The battle over safe haven laws is heating up! These laws are intended to allow parents to leave their newborns at designated safe places, including hospitals and police stations, while guaranteeing those parents anonymity and freedom from prosecution. Sounds good huh? Read on. There are some serious issues. First there was the excellent report by The Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute - Unintended Consequences: Safe Haven Laws are Causing Problems, Not Solving Them - which was critical of safe haven laws. Then noted columnist (and adoptive parent) Al Hunt wrote a hard hitting commentary in the Wall Street Journal praising Hawaii Governor Linda ...

Website of Interest

This is a nice site and great resource for tracking national child welfare legislation. This page, at least, is a fancy blog! I don't know Marcia but she is doing a great job. The only change I would make is to provide the legislation as a PDF instead of HTML. Check it out. Best Interests: Legislation

The Boston Globe – TPR Series

I found this article moving and profound. The reporter clearly did an excellent job of presenting the nuances of terminating the parental rights of so-called chronically neglectful parents. Barbara's story is, sadly, typical of the families who are all too frequently involved in the child welfare system: often impoverished, with mental disabilities, inadequate parenting skills (or is that inadequate middle class parenting skills?), unstable employment, no family support and poor decisionmaking skills. She was clearly not abusive; even the social workers acknowledged that. Were her children neglected or just poor? The chronicle of inadequate social ...

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