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Full-Text Articles in Family Law
The Restatement Of The Law, Children And The Law: A Blueprint For Reforming The Child Welfare System, Clare Huntington
The Restatement Of The Law, Children And The Law: A Blueprint For Reforming The Child Welfare System, Clare Huntington
Faculty Scholarship
As part of the special issue on the foster care system, this essay challenges the assumption that all the children who are in foster care should be in foster care. The essay first describes the familiar—and still persuasive—argument that foster care does not serve the interests of most children and families. It then brings a new lens to bear on this argument by describing the work of the American Law Institute's Restatement of the Law, Children and the Law, which provides a blueprint for shrinking the child welfare system and promoting child well-being.
Mutual Dependency In Child Welfare, Clare Huntington
Mutual Dependency In Child Welfare, Clare Huntington
Faculty Scholarship
The child welfare system is in need of fundamental reform. To the great detriment of parents and children, in the current system the state waits for a crisis in a family and then intervenes in a heavy-handed fashion. The state pays scant attention to the prevention of child abuse and neglect. This article argues that the principle conceptual barrier to the adoption of a prevention-oriented approach to child welfare is the dominant conception of family autonomy, which venerates freedom from state control. This article proposes a novel reconfiguration of family autonomy that encourages engagement with the state, rather than simply …
Rights Myopia In Child Welfare, Clare Huntington
Rights Myopia In Child Welfare, Clare Huntington
Faculty Scholarship
For decades, legal scholars have debated the proper balance of parents' rights and children's rights in the child welfare system. This Article argues that the debate mistakenly privileges rights. Neither parents' rights nor children's rights serve families well because, as implemented, a solely rights-based model of child welfare does not protect the interests of parents or children. Additionally, even if well-implemented, the model still would not serve parents or children because it obscures the important role of poverty in child abuse and neglect and fosters conflict rather than collaboration between the state and families. In lieu of a solely rights-based …
The Criminalization Of Child Welfare In New York City: Sparing The Child Or Spoiling The Family?, Alison B. Vreeland
The Criminalization Of Child Welfare In New York City: Sparing The Child Or Spoiling The Family?, Alison B. Vreeland
Fordham Urban Law Journal
The trend in child welfare has been to err on the side of protection, often considered erring on the side of the child. While this approach may have been appropriate to overcome a long history of State abstinence from involvement in the family domain, it has been under-inclusive in protecting the child's fundamental right to a parent-child relationship. A delicate balance must be struck between family autonomy and State intervention. This balance is best achieved in the family court when the child's best interest is represented and the family is addressed as a whole. Under traditional criminal procedure, which focuses …
Kinship Foster Care: A Relatively Permanent Solution, Marla Gottlieb Zwas
Kinship Foster Care: A Relatively Permanent Solution, Marla Gottlieb Zwas
Fordham Urban Law Journal
Kinship foster care is intended to provide substantially the same standard of care as children receive in placement with unrelated foster parents. In practice, however, the two differ enormously in New York City. Frequently, agencies place foster children in the homes of relatives with little regard for the adequacy of those homes. This Note evaluates the existing kinship foster care system, and examines the possibility of addressing the program's problems by creating a new legislative category for kinship guardians.