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Family Law

University of the District of Columbia School of Law

Series

Foster Care

Publication Year

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Law

Heuristics, Cognitive Biases, And Accountability: Decision-Making In Dependency Court, Matthew I. Fraidin Jan 2013

Heuristics, Cognitive Biases, And Accountability: Decision-Making In Dependency Court, Matthew I. Fraidin

Journal Articles

On tens of thousands of occasions each year, state court judges wrongly separate children from their families and place them in foster care. And while a child is in foster care, judges are called on to render hundreds of decisions affecting every aspect of the child’s life. This Article uses insights from social psychology research to analyze the environment of dependency court and to recommend changes that will improve decisions. Research indicates that decision makers aware at the time they make a decision that they will be called upon later to explain it may engage in a systematic, deliberate decision-making …


Resurrecting Parents Of Legal Orphans: Un-Terminating Parental Rights, Lashanda Taylor Adams Jan 2010

Resurrecting Parents Of Legal Orphans: Un-Terminating Parental Rights, Lashanda Taylor Adams

Journal Articles

Despite federal and state legislation that requires termination of parental rights when a child has remained in foster care for a specified period of time, studies indicate that relationships with their biological parents (and other relatives) remain important to children in foster care.3 Especially for children whose parents’ parental rights have been terminated, the connection with their biological parent remains central to their development and these children make efforts to maintain that connection. Once it becomes clear that the purpose for terminating the parental rights (i.e., freeing the child for adoption) will not be served, in an increasing number of …