Rethinking Foster Care

Let’s say that my neighbor is upset because he believes I encroached on his property by building a fence on it. So he sneaks into court – without my knowledge – and obtains a court order from a judge requiring me to immediately remove the fence. I never had a chance to present my facts, or to challenge his. I never had the opportunity to present my arguments before the court made its decision. Would any of us consider this a fair process? Of course not. But this is the one-sided legal process through which the child welfare system routinely tears families apart. Juvenile courts in America routinely grant requests to separate children from their parents without ever giving anyone other than the child protective services (CPS) investigator an opportunity to present evidence. Over nearly two decades of representing children in the foster care system, I can only recount a handful of times – maybe five or less – in which my clients had not already been removed prior to the