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Full-Text Articles in Law
Looking Ahead: The Future Of Child Welfare Law, Donald N. Duquette
Looking Ahead: The Future Of Child Welfare Law, Donald N. Duquette
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Introduction to a 2007 Symposium held to mark the Thirtieth Anniversary of the Child Advocacy Clinic.
Child Well-Being: A Beneficial Advocacy Framework For Improving The Child Welfare System?, Sarah H. Ramsey
Child Well-Being: A Beneficial Advocacy Framework For Improving The Child Welfare System?, Sarah H. Ramsey
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
This Article explores the advantages and disadvantages of child well-being as a child welfare system advocacy framework. It examines the use of the concept of child well-being as a social indicator and the importance of poverty rates to the child welfare system. It also examines the use of child well-being as an outcome measure for the child welfare system, in particular in Child and Family Service Reviews ("CFSRs") and court evaluations. The possible impact of the child wellbeing concept is considered in the context of several programs, including income supports and problem-solving courts. The Article concludes that, overall, well-being provides …
Why Children Still Need A Lawyer, Marcia Robinson Lowry, Sara Bartosz
Why Children Still Need A Lawyer, Marcia Robinson Lowry, Sara Bartosz
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Every day approximately 500,000 children across the United States wake up in foster care, most in foster family homes, though many others in group homes and institutions. These children entered the state foster care system as innocent victims of abuse or neglect occurring in their birth homes. As wards of the state, they depend completely on the government to provide for their essential safety and wellbeing and to reconnect them with a permanent family, hopefully their own.
Though state child welfare agencies possess fundamental legal obligations under the United States Constitution and federal and state statutes to provide adequate care …
The Multiethnic Placement Act: Threat To Foster Child Safety And Well-Being?, David J. Herring
The Multiethnic Placement Act: Threat To Foster Child Safety And Well-Being?, David J. Herring
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Despite the efforts of public officials to reduce the time children spend in foster care, many children live in foster homes for a substantial portion of their childhoods. In fact, a child placed in a foster home may remain in that home for an extended period, with a significant possibility of remaining there permanently. In light of this situation, the decision to place a child in a particular foster home is extremely important.
The federal Multiethnic Placement Act ("MEPA ") significantly affects foster care placement decisions. This law expressly prohibits public child welfare agencies from delaying or denying a child's …
Measuring The Next 30 Years, Beth Locker, Andrew Barclay
Measuring The Next 30 Years, Beth Locker, Andrew Barclay
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
The last thirty years have seen many changes in the field of child protection, as child welfare law and policy have been undergoing nearly constant change. Those changes, however, have rarely been supported by data or scientific research; rather, they seem to have been largely driven by individual perception of events and gut instincts resulting in what has become essentially a folklore-based system. By focusing on data and scientific research, we hope for better outcomes, but short of that, we at least hope to know whether, and why, outcomes change. The move towards data collection and analysis has begun, but …
Neither Dyad Nor Triad: Children's Relationship Interests Within Kinship Caregiving Families, Sacha M. Coupet
Neither Dyad Nor Triad: Children's Relationship Interests Within Kinship Caregiving Families, Sacha M. Coupet
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Utilizing a research design lens as a platform for exploring children's relationship rights, this Essay examines first, the limitations of a rights-based framework and second, insufficient participation by children in decision-making regarding their access to and interest in relationships with significant others. This Essay posits that neither the dyadic rights-based framework in domestic relations nor the, ostensibly, triadic one in child welfare serve the interests of children, since children's rights are invariably subordinated to those of adults and the state. In place of a rights-based approach, this Essay endorses an interests-based model more attuned to the holistic aim of child …
Looking Ahead: A Personal Vision Of The Future Of Child Welfare Law, Donald N. Duquette
Looking Ahead: A Personal Vision Of The Future Of Child Welfare Law, Donald N. Duquette
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
The participants in the Thirtieth Anniversary Celebration of the Child Advocacy Law Clinic were all challenged to envision the future of child welfare and to address these questions: What should the law and legal institutions governing children's rights and child and family welfare look like in thirty more years? What steps are necessary to achieve those goals? After setting out the historical and optimistic circumstance in which the Child Advocacy Law Clinic was founded, this Article responds to the organizing questions by presenting the author's vision of the future of child welfare law and practice. When families fail children, what …