Annotated Bibliography On Child Welfare System

“ The Federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) … defines child abuse and neglect as, at minimum: "Any recent act or failure to act on the part of a parent or caretaker which results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse or exploitation"; or
 "An act or failure to act which presents an imminent risk of serious harm."” (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services and Administration for Children & Families, "Definitions of Child Abuse

The 1874 case of Mary Ellen, was the first criminal case to be tried in the courts regarding abuse of a child (Traux, 2013). The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) of 1974, was a major turning point in the fight to help protect children. The enactment of CAPTA helped provide federal funding to states in an effort to help with the identification, prevention and treatment of child abuse and neglect (National Low Income Housing Coalition (2014). There have been several amendments to CAPTA over the years to help with how the CPS organization operates.

The number of children in the foster care system continues to increase. While the foster care system is essential in helping abused, abandoned, and neglected children, many children remain in foster care for long periods of time when family reunification or adoption is planned. Court delays can often extend the time between when children enter the foster care system and when they are placed into permanent homes. Significant differences exist in the quality of care and outcomes for children depending on their race and ethnicity. The percentage of children of color in the foster care system is larger than the percentage of children of color among the general U.S. population. However, the occurrence of child abuse and neglect is at about the same rate in all racial/ethnic groups.

Many of the children who are placed into the care of Child Protective Services are situated into hellish foster homes with people who only care about the money they receive from the government for each child that is placed under their roof; and not for the welfare of the children. Numerous amounts of children that are caught up in the system, especially

It is a reasonable argument that child welfare service entities are necessary as it is all too frequent that child abuse/neglect cases are heard all over the nation and is ultimately a world health issues.  Increasing social issues such as unstable families, poverty, crime, poor education, lack of access to health care and mental health services are some of the factors that contribute to this continuous epidemic that affects many people from various socio-economic classes. Many nations have taken steps to enhance and improve efforts in the fight against the mistreatment of children.

In the past year and a half with events like DPAL, Native American rights along with the rights of other minority groups in the United States haven’t been shown the same rights as Caucasians when it comes to civil liberty issues. In 1978 Congress passed the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA). Under the ICWA tribes have significant input on whether the removal of children from them is necessary, “efforts must be made to support and rehabilitate a family before its child is placed into foster care or adopted.” (Ryznar, 2013). The ICWA also was enacted to examine how it “establishes standards for state-court child custody proceedings involving Indian children… “the consequences…of abusive child welfare practices that [separated] Indian children from their families and tribes through adoption or foster care placement, usually in non-Indian homes.” (Cornell University Law School). In 2009, a couple from South Carolina, Melanie and Matthew Capobianco, wanted to adopt a baby whose father (Dusten Brown) was an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation and mother Christina Maldonado of Hispanic background. Due to Brown being a registered member of the Cherokee Nation, and under the ICWA, a child that

Others state that “race should be no barrier to finding a child a loving family and adoptive family”. One in five children waiting to be adopted are from an ethnic minority. Last year around 2,300 children were approved for adoption. Of those children 500 of them were either black or asian. Some adopted children state that growing up in a family you weren’t born into was more difficult than they thought. You never knew your ethnic background. It also always raises questions for a child about where they fit in or who they are. It becomes very pointed out if you are visually different from your

Racial disproportionality and disparity in child welfare represents a multifaceted phenomenon originating from historical, theoretical socioeconomic and policy trends that has shaped this service over the past decades. There are many theories that have been proposed to explain why racial disproportionality and disparity exists in child welfare. It has been recognized the underlying roots of racial disproportionality and disparity are intricate and often coincides. Racial disproportionate in child welfare will be the focus of this research. I will focus on Racial Bias and Discrimination of the child welfare agencies, particularly the child protective services. The research suggests the one of the reasons for the over representation of minority(colored) children in child welfare come from the different treatment of race or due to racial biases (Chung, 1998). This theory also suggests this treatment can be external or internal in the welfare system; however I will focus only on the implication of internal welfare agencies (i.e. child protective specialist). Child protective specialists’ culture and policies may lead to unbalanced treatment of families of color. CPS workers may have biases towards families of color which could affect the decision making at any point of the investigation. This may not have occurred intentionally by the worker, however, due to institutional racism, which may stem from policies and practices has posited to contribute to

The author, Nina Biehal, tells of the treatment in foster care and the need for correction in her article, "Maltreatment in Foster Care: A review of the evidence." The author gives many facts about how the government needs to change the level of care provided for the children. This article is more of a constant reminder of how much still needs to change and the level of care offered to children of abuse today. Unlike the article by authors Kristen Turney and Christopher Wilderman, which bases their article on the number of children in foster care receiving mental health care, Biehal gives evidence to support the problems that result from being in foster care. My essay can use this article to paint a picture of the number of children in detrimental conditions and how foster care developed problems with their system to support my argument.

According to our textbook, Public Law 93-247 which is the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA), came into effect on January 31, 1974. This law is regards to childhood maltreatment. The law implemented the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect. Central agencies needed to be created in each individual state. The central agencies had to have legal authority to investigate and be able to prosecute cases that involved abuse and neglect. The States also had to develop their own definitions, policies, procedures, and laws dealing with child abuse and neglect. With the amendment of 2003, states needed to include foster care, adoption, abandoned infants and family violence protection into their services.

Everywhere across the world, more and more children are being placed into foster care or a welfare type system. Foster care can benefit children or harm them; the effects of foster care differ for every individual. These types of systems often have a major effect on young children’s physiological state. Children entering in foster care are often malnourished and have untreated health problems. A high percentage of children who are placed in these types of systems have mental health, physical health, and/or developmental issue which often originates while the individuals are still in the custody of the biological parents. Children in foster care should be provided with a healthy and nurturing environment which often provides positive long term results. The age of children in a foster care varies across the world, but it is often seen that majority of these children are young (George para. 1). There are more young children in the system because younger children require more adequate care than older children that are already in the system. Placing these children in welfare systems is supposed to be a healing process for them. Although this is supposed to be a healing process, statistics say these children have a negative experience while being in these systems, but this is not always the case. A number of children in foster care fall sucker to continuous neglect and recurrent abuse with the lack of nurturing and an unstable environment. These same children often have unmet

In the United States, children of color are generally more likely to be in poverty than white children (Patten & Krogstad, 2015). While there is a distinction in respect to finances, children of color face higher rates of placement in the foster care system, more time spent in foster care, and child welfare decisions based on their race, all aspects which, if analyzed jointly, do not have much to do with the poverty gap at all.

By the year 1967, all U.S. states had child abuse reporting laws. “Child abuse reporting laws and enhanced awareness of child abuse produced an increase in intervention” (Myers, 2013). As reporting laws came into affect, more and more cases of child abuse and neglect were shown. By the mid 1970s, over 60,000 child abuse cases were reported and the extremely high rate of children in foster care alarmed government officials. In 1980, the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act (AACWA) was passed. This act required every state to make reasonable efforts in keeping children with their families, and when removing the child was not avoidable, the child was required to have a plan to be placed back in the home or have their parents’ rights revoked. For the children whom returning home was not an option, Congress offered financial incentives for adoption. This effort to preserve the families was a main objective of AACWA. An influential investigation pertaining to this was done by Henry S. Mass and Richard E. Engler, as explained by Sribnick (2011). They concluded that many children were living a majority of their childhood years in foster care and institutions. Their findings showed that if a child stayed in foster care for more than a year and a half, it was not likely that he or she would ever be reunited with his or her family or be adopted. In response to this, the Child Welfare League of America lobbied for child welfare workers to consider

To the thousands of children in foster care, adoption means being part of a family. Adoption signifies a chance to be loved, wanted, and cared for properly. Every year thousands of children enter the foster care system. In the year 2010 alone, 245,375 children entered foster care, of that number over 61,000 were black. An astounding 30,812 black children were waiting for adoption in 2010 (AFCARS). With so many children needing homes, it would seem their adoption would be open to any and all loving families, yet this is not the necessarily the case. Transracial adoption, which traditionally alludes to black children placed with white families, is riddled with difficulties. While transracial adoption can be a successful solution, many

Child abuse is at its peak in today's world. It has multiple forms. It is usually referred as physical, sexual or emotional exploitation or negligence of a child. Department for Children And Families (DCF) define child abuse as acts of commission parent or other guardian that consequences in damage, probability for destruction, or risk of harm to a child. Child abuse can occur at many places like child's home, organizations, schools or publics the child interacts or communicates with