Child Welfare Removals By The State

Acknowledgements -- Contributors -- Child welfare removals by the state / complex and controversial decisions / Kenneth Burns, Tarja Poso and Marit Skivenes -- Removals of children in Finland: a mix of voluntary and involuntary decisions / Tarja Poso and Raija Huhtanen -- Norway : child welfare decision-making in cases of removals of children / Marit Skivenes and Karl Harald Søvig -- Placing children in state care in Sweden : decision-making bodies, laypersons and legal framework / Gustav Svensson and Staffan Højer -- Removing children from their families due to child protection in Germany / Monika Haug and Theresia Høynck -- Child removal proceedings in Switzerland / Stefan Schnurr -- Child removal decision-making systems in Ireland : law, policy and practice / Kenneth Burns, Conor O'Mahony, Caroline Shore and Aisling Parkes -- State intervention in family life in England : safeguarding children through care proceedings and adoption / Karen Broadhurst -- How children are removed from home in the United States / Katrin Kriz, Janese Free and Grant Kuehl -- Removals of children by the child welfare system / variations and differences across countries / Kenneth Burns, Tarja Poso and Marit Skivenes -- Index

Kids in danger are treated instrumentally to promote the rehabilitation of their parents, the welfare of their communities, and the social justice of their race and tribe—all with the inevitable result that their most precious developmental years are lost in bureaucratic and judicial red tape. It is time to stop letting efforts to fix the child welfare system get derailed by activists who are concerned with race-matching, blood ties, and the abstract demands of social justice, and start asking the most important question: Where are the emotionally and financially stable, loving, and permanent homes where these kids can thrive? “Naomi Riley’s book reveals the extent to which abused and abandoned children are often injured by their government rescuers. It is a must-read for those seeking solutions to this national crisis.” —Robert L. Woodson, Sr., civil rights leader and president of the Woodson Center “Everyone interested in child welfare should grapple with Naomi Riley’s powerful evidence that the current system ill-serves the safety and well-being of vulnerable kids.” —Walter Olson, senior fellow, Cato Institute, Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies

This book explores how children's rights are weighed against parents' rights in a range of countries, and examines how governments and legal and welfare professionals balance those rights following the decision that children cannot grow up in their parents' care, providing best practice evidence to help improve outcomes for all adopted children.

More than two million child abuse reports are filed annually on behalf of children in the United States. Each of the reported children becomes a concern, at least temporarily, of the professional who files the report, and each family is assessed by additional professionals. A substantial number of children in these families will subsequently enter foster care. Until now, the relationships between the performance of our child welfare system and the growth and outcomes of foster care have not been understood. In an effort to clarify them, Barth and his colleagues have synthesized the results of their longitudinal study in California of the paths taken by children after the initial abuse report: foster care, a return to their homes, or placement for adoption. Because of the outcomes of child welfare services in California have national significance, this is far more than a regional study. It provides a comprehensive picture of children's experiences in the child welfare system and a gauge of the effectiveness of that system. The policy implications of the California study have bearing on major federal and state initiatives to prevent child abuse and reduce unnecessary foster and group home care.

This volume provides a wide spectrum description analysis of the contemporary and well established child protection systems in a range of countries, such as Australia, Canada, Netherlands and Spain. It presents a brief orientation about the public and private systems involved in protecting children in each country. Further the book identifies current key policy and implementation drivers that orient the systems of child protection, such as children’s rights, family preservation, use of evidence and public health orientation. Finally it presents a critical analysis of the strengths and limitations of the systems, as well as, strategies for prospects for improving outcomes for children and their families.