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Every Adolescent Deserves A Parent, Dale Margolin Cecka

Law Faculty Publications

This article argues that all adolescents, indeed all human beings, deserve at least one parent—one person who takes the good with the bad because that person’s life is intertwined with the child’s. The child matters to the parent in a way that a friend, nephew, or foster child may not. Child welfare professionals must never lose sight of this principle when they recruit, train, and maintain parents for adolescents. The parent can be someone who is already in the young person’s life or someone who has been unable to parent in the past, but is now ready to secure that …