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This article explores our national reactive child protection model which has focused on removing poor people from poor families and has resulted in conflating poverty with neglect. Significant issues of class and race are implicated given dramatic systemic racial and ethnic disparities and questions must be asked whether current practices have done more harm than good. In reviewing this landscape this article is descriptive and prescriptive and calls for adopting proactive public health‐oriented policies which support children and families in their homes and a culture of due process and fairness in juvenile and family court hearings involving children and their families. Dependency or abuse and neglect cases involve state intervention. These are not disputes between private parties where the sole focus is the best interest of the child regarding which guardian to be placed with. Cheating the Evidence warns against diluting the constitutional requirement of proving the lack of parental unfitness by clear and convincing evidence by making comparative judgments about placement which are based on often subjective assessments on best interests of the child which are resource based. Given that high percentage of cases involving allegations of neglect versus inflicted abuse these concerns are of paramount importance. There is a need for more rigor in fact‐finding and adherence to constitutionally required burdens of proof. Due process and fairness are best‐served by supporting client‐directed advocacy and greater transparency, including presumptively opening up the doors to closed juvenile and family court hearings as recommended by the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges in 2005. Opening the doors is not a binary or either or proposition‐ we can preclude dissemination of records of youth, and protect confidentiality as a growing number of states have done. Transparency includes more than raising the level of practice of lawyers and judges‐ it includes encouraging systemic accountability from child serving agencies and educating the public about the complexities which are related to the birth or cradle to prison pipeline. Key points for the family court community: Over two‐thirds of dependency case filing involving allegations of neglect versus inflicted abuse.In some states over 70% of black children live in families which will be the subject of a child protection investigation before they become 18.Youth in foster care experience P.T.S.D. at higher rates than returning war veterans from Iraq, Afghanistan, or Viet Nam.The goal of permanence for children is not necessarily improved by termination of parental rights.Due process requires client directed advocacy‐ not making best interest judgments based on surrogate opinion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the Minnesota Supreme Court's decision in R.D.L. regarding involuntary termination of parental rights (TPR). It highlights the severe consequences of TPR, likened to a "civil death penalty," and explores the constitutional implications of Minnesota's presumption statute, which creates a presumption of parental unfitness after a previous involuntary TPR.

Abstract Following PRISMA guidelines, this systematic review assessed the impact of the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 (ASFA) on the foster care population; adoption, reunification, and TPR rates; and foster care durations. The search was carried out from July 13, 2023 to July 15, 2023 and yielded twenty studies published between 1998 and 2023. Due to a lack of pre-ASFA data, most studies’ results were limited. Comparison was further complicated by local differences in ASFA implementation. While the foster care population declined and the adoption rates rose, whether these changes could be attributed to ASFA is less clear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Legal and relational permanence have long been viewed as a central outcome of child welfare services. Timely termination of parental rights (TPR) has been a cornerstone of these permanency efforts because TPRs facilitate permanency through adoption. Yet the number of adoption plans that are not finalized or sustained are not trivial. Over 2,000 youth emancipate from foster care each year and many more leave earlier but not before a TPR has occurred. Some states have passed legislation to allow reinstatements of parental rights. This paper reviews the range of factors state legislation includes, reviews scant existing literature on how TPRs may effect youth, and proposes several options for ways that unproductive TPRs can be reduced, and timely reinstatements increased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The controlling federal family regulation law, the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 ("ASFA"), has long been criticized for unnecessarily terminating the rights of parents and leaving thousands of children in its wake without legal parents or any prospect for adoption. Critics highlight the irreparable destruction ASFA has caused the Black community, and many suggest that this result is by design, not disproportionate impact. As a result, a growing movement of impacted parents, advocates, and scholars have called for ASFA's total repeal. This article draws on the work of these parents, advocates, and scholars to argue that a law whose foundation is built on inherently prejudicial policies cannot be repaired; it must be dismantled in its entirety. Dismantling is necessary not only for practical legal reasons, but also because of the symbolic importance of repeal to those most impacted by the law and its attendant policies. Laws have expressive value, and as such, the repeal of harmful laws demonstrates our priorities, our beliefs and who we are as a society. This article examines previous attempts at reform to demonstrate that any attempt to amend ASFA would be insufficient to address its fundamental flaws. Finally, the article concludes by proposing a path forward that is led by impacted families, respects the right to family integrity and recognizes the importance of supporting and investing in communities. Key points for the family court community: The Adoption and Safe Families Act is built on a foundation of inherently prejudicial policies.ASFA's structure also undermines efforts to keep families together.A growing community of impacted people, activists, advocates and scholars believe that ASFA should be repealed becuase of its destructive impact on low‐income parents and communities of color.Other efforts at reform have only increased the abilty of the state to surveil and punish.Laws have expressive value and many believe that repealing a harmful law is crucial to healing communities that have been harmed.To truly begin to atone for the harms of the past, we must envision a path forward that shifts power, invests in the community and is completely transforms our approach to "child welfare."Impacted parents must lead the effort towards change and allies and advocates should listen, learn, act with humility and support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Article explores the unnecessary termination of a child's relationship with their parent from an empirical, clinical, and constitutional lens. Part I explores administrative data related to TPR, which like many child protection metrics, resembles nothing short of a wild west of practices and policies relating to how often and how fast child protection systems terminate parental rights. These data also reveal how TPR can unnecessarily delay legal permanency for children, particularly those children who are living with extended family, and how a State pursuing TPR can drain its own scarce resources, a system perpetually decrying insufficient resources. Part II highlights the clinical research showing the need for children to have relationships with their birth parents, even with those who might be unable to care for them. This section also summarizes the research documenting the trauma experienced by parents who have their parental rights terminated, which might impact the parent's ability to care for other children in the future. Part III discusses the unconstitutional features of the child protection system's overutilization of TPR. Well‐established principles of constitutional law require courts to search for less restrictive alternatives prior to infringing on individuals' fundamental rights, like the right to direct the care of one's child. Still, child protection systems stubbornly persist in terminating parental rights, a thinly veiled effort held out as a means to achieve legal permanency for children despite TPR being neither necessary nor sufficient to achieve legal permanency for children. Key points for the family court community: Terminating a child's relationship with their parent can inflict significant harm on the entire family.States vary on how often and how quickly they terminate parental rights.Unnecessarily terminating a parent's rights can needlessly delay legal permanency for children can drain scarce systemic resources.Terminating a parent's rights, where other less intrusive alternatives exist, raises serious constitutional concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Families who find themselves in the middle of child protective proceedings have three possible outcomes: (1) the family can reunify; (2) parents voluntarily surrender their parental rights; or (3) the parents have their rights terminated. While it seems we should support children in the second and third scenarios equally, having funding sources such as the Kinship Guardianship Assistance Program (KinGAP) only available to children of parents whose rights are terminated, does the opposite. This Note proposes amending the eligibility requirements of KinGAP to include children of parents who surrender their parental rights which would encourage positive safe placements for children. Key Points for the Family Court Community: KinGAP provides financial assistance to kinship caregivers who take on the legal responsibility of guardianship.The purpose of KinGAP is to create more guardians for the permanent placement of foster children who would otherwise be unable to afford the additional expense of caring for a child.Due to the current eligibility requirements of KinGAP, children of parents who voluntarily surrendered their rights are often ineligible while children of parents who had their rights terminated are.As of 2021, 14,749 children in New York remain in foster care in search of a permanent placement.Children in kinship care are shown to have better behavior and mental health outcomes compared to children in traditional foster care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An analysis of the Supreme Court Dobbs decision, highlighting Amy Coney Barrett’s argument that adoption “takes care of the problem” of abortion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rates of child removal by child protective services (CPS) in Manitoba are the highest in Canada with a profoundly disproportionate impact on First Nations families. Despite infants constituting the highest proportion of children affected, no research has examined population-level rates of infant contact with CPS. We examined the incidence of infant contact with different levels of CPS, including termination of parental rights (TPR), according to First Nations status. We identified 217,261 infants (47,416 First Nations; 169,845 non-First Nations) born between 1998 and 2014 in Manitoba, Canada and residing in the province until at least age 5. We used linked administrative data to calculate population-level rates of contact with different levels of CPS by First Nations status, including an open file before age 1, out-of-home placement before age 1, and TPR before age 5. Overall 35.8 % of First Nations infants had an open file, 8.5 % experienced out-of-home placement, and 5.4 % experienced TPR. Among other infants, 8.5 % had an open file, 1.3 % experienced out-of-home placement and 0.7 % experienced TPR. The rate of early-stage contact increased the fastest among First Nations infants, with a rise of 22.4 % in our study period, compared to a rise of 1.7 % among all other infants. CPS contact was exceptionally high among First Nations infants compared to other infants, with early-stage contact accelerating most dramatically over time. Findings support calls to greatly reduce the disruption of system contact in the lives of First Nations families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article highlights the update on family law in Indiana from October 2019 to September 2020. Topics mentioned include the property division after the divorce, the rights of grandparents, the modification of child custody, parenting time and visitation, child support, spousal maintenance, the termination of parental rights, and the child or children in need of services law.

While Child Protective Services may provide some services to remedy the underlying issues of child neglect allegations, these efforts are often bare minimum and inadequately implemented in order to effectuate the goals of family reunification. This Note proposes an amendment to the Family Court Act in order to promote compliance of local child welfare agencies' obligation to reunify the family unit. The amendment will mandate that agencies show, by clear and convincing evidence, that the child protective services agency has made active efforts to reunify the family. Key Points for the Family Court Community: Child Neglect is the most common reason for child removals.Approximately sixty seven percent of Child Neglect cases are poverty‐related.There are over 443,000 children in foster care in the United States.The U.S. federal government spends up to $5 million annually on foster care placement.Children with history of foster care placement are four times as likely than other children to attempt suicide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anecdotally, judges, court staff and behavioral health providers working in the child welfare system indicate that families commonly return to the system after a termination of parental rights. The current study is the first to empirically investigate these families who return to the system with new children. Results show that although only a small proportion of families returned after a previous termination of parental rights, these families often returned multiple times with new children. Future research should attempt to replicate these results in other jurisdictions and focus on risk and protective factors to better understand the needs of these parents and children, and determine how to better support them within the child welfare system. Key Points for the Family and Juvenile Court Community: Less than 10% of the families who returned to the child welfare system within one calendar year in 2007 returned following a termination of parental rights.Families returned to the system, on average, less than a year after the previous case was closed.Children in the new cases following their parents' previous termination of parental rights tended to be younger than children in the original cases.Parental substance abuse and failure‐to‐protect were the most commonly reported reasons for removal when families returned after a termination of parental rights.Many families experienced more than one case ending in a termination of parental rights. Families who returned to the child welfare system after a termination of parental rights had an average of five separate cases/dependency petitions including both prior to and following the case in this study ending in a termination of parental rights.Additional research is needed to aid in identification of risk factors for families returning so that new skills and additional support may be provided for families at risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The right to parenting refers to the biological parent's right to make decisions about the care and wellbeing of the child and is considered a fundamental constitutional right. But if the child faces imminent risk of harm, this right can be revoked. This study examines the right to parenting in child maltreatment cases where parental rights were terminated and the way this right was balanced against other rights and interests of the child and parents. Drawing on a sample of 212 court cases, the study found that the right to parenting was discussed by the courts only in a quarter of the cases. It was also found that the right to parenting was referenced more often in less severe cases than in more severe cases. This paper discusses legal marginalization as reflective of the social marginalization of families involved in the child welfare system and the importance of a deliberate consideration of the right to parenting in every individual case from a legal as well as therapeutic perspective. It suggests that when professionals neglect parental rights they may also fail to provide parents with a full chance to participate in services that could help them improve their parenting skills and be reunified with their children. Practitioner's Key Points:A parent's constitutional right to parent one's own child may be terminated by the court if the parent lacks parental capacity to care for the child and there is no other solution to assure placement stability for the child.The study analyzed the legal discourse pertaining to the right to parenting in cases where parental rights were terminated.It was found that only a quarter (25%) of court cases of termination of parental rights (TPR) discussed the right to parenting.Courts were more likely to discuss the right to parenting in less severe cases (e.g., less child maltreatment reports, more parental cooperation with the CPS, social support for the family).When the right to parenting was considered, the legal discussion referred to other important rights and interests of both the child and the parents, and was more balanced.The study discusses ways in which the legal marginalization of the biological parents might reflect the social marginalization.The study discusses the option of an implicit acknowledgment of the importance of the parent‐child relationship through the provisions of services to the family and attempts to reunify the child with the family prior to TPR proceedings.When professionals neglect parental rights they may also neglect ways of helping parents actualize their parental rights.Acknowledging the right to parenting may benefit the treatment process prior to TPR proceedings by directing professionals to the need to provide services to improve parental skills.Judges and child protection workers should be more cognizant of the right to parenting, its meaning and consequences, and should give it due consideration in every individual case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Registered sex offenders are obligated to comply with rules put forth by their state's registry. While there are stringent guidelines regarding the offender's interaction with the public, a sex offender's ability to obtain custody of their child is less rigid. Statutes differ on the level of scrutiny referencing their right to parent, which leaves an opening for offenders to abuse their child. This Note proposes the adoption of a model statute in which registered Tier III sex offender parents who were convicted for a crime involving a minor are precluded from gaining physical or legal custody of their child. Key Points for the Family Court Community:57,329 cases of childhood sexual abuse allegations are confirmed per year by Child Protective Services.Of those reported, 20% of the perpetrators were fathers.Children who experience sexual abuse are more likely to develop eating disorders, drug addiction, post‐traumatic stress disorder, and depression.Sex offenders are required to submit their information to a registry that is accessible to the public following the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, but individual states still have the ability to enact their own registration requirements.States are permitted to draft their own custodial rights statutes, some of which allow parents who are registered sex offenders unsupervised access to their child. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Termination of parental rights ("TPR") ends the parent–child relationship though a process governed by state law. As a recent analysis of federal data revealed, TPR rates vary widely by state. In West Virginia, the TPR rate was 283 per 100,000. In New York State, the focus of this article, there were approximately 30 TPRs for every 100,000 children in 2014. Within New York State, TPR rates vary by county. In this exploratory piece, we analyze TPR rates in New York by county, noting discrepancies and seeking possible explanations for these variations, including possible effects of income disparities, single‐parent households, poor mental health, binge drinking, and drug addiction. This is an initial exploration only, and is not intended to be a rigorous quantitative study. Rather, our scope arises from what we have noticed from front line practice. It is our hope that researchers will use our exploratory findings for extended analysis, including analysis of TPR data from other states. Practitioner's Key Points:In New York State, there are approximately 30 TPRs for every 100,000 children.TPR rates vary widely across New York's counties.Possible explanations for high incidence of TPR in certain counties include: income disparities, single‐parent households, poor mental health, binge drinking, and drug addiction.Our analysis is qualitative, based on our experiences in front line practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite changing family compositions, entrenched in family law is the antiquated idea that a two-parent household, or its approximation vis-à-vis a shared custody arrangement, promotes stability and integrity and, thus, is in the best interest of the child. Yet, the concept that the two-parent household (or shared involvement of both parents in the child's life if the parents separate) promotes stability for the family and is best for the child is a dangerous fallacy. When rape or intimate partner violence (IPV) is present, or the re-occurrence of violence remains a threat, the family unit is far from stable. This Article explores the legal system's glorification of the nuclear family, its resistance to shifting away from the two-parent paradigm, and how this resistance creates a stability paradox and perpetuates violence against women and children. The harmful impact that the nuclear family paradigm has on families is further explored by an examination of the statutory constructs and judicial interpretations of termination of parental rights (TPR) and custody statutes in cases where a child is conceived as a result of rape or exposed to ongoing IPV. Cases are utilized to examine how courts have interpreted parental rights statutes where a child is conceived as a result of rape. Additionally, a hypothetical case is discussed to explore arguments that may be advanced in TPR cases where children are exposed to ongoing IPV. The Article finds that although there are inherent problems in enacting statutes to terminate parental rights in cases involving rape or IPV, legislation is also a necessary tool for survivors. Model legislation is proposed for termination of parental rights in cases where a child is conceived as a result of a sexual offense or when a child is exposed to ongoing IPV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This survey of the statutory provisions and case law of all 50 states and the District of Columbia includes the rights of children to parental support, inheritance, and familial association remaining upon termination of parental rights. A majority of states terminate all the child's rights at the time parental rights are severed. However, a number of states by explicit statutes or statutory construction have determined that a child's rights to parental support survives termination of parental rights. This survey examines the prevailing law in each state and suggests statutory reforms to protect the legal status and rights of children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

State proceedings that initiate and effect involuntary termination of parental rights occur only in egregious circumstances. In New Mexico, before an abusive or neglectful parent's rights may be terminated, the state must prove, among other requirements, that it made "reasonable efforts" to provide assistance to the involved parent to remedy the causes and conditions that led to the subject abuse. Courts continue to grapple with precisely what constitutes reasonable efforts to this day because it is not concretely defined. Special cases, such as when parents have become incarcerated after an adjudication of abuse or neglect, are particularly vexing because parents behind bars are limited in their ability to communicate with their case workers and may have fewer options to comply with any treatment plan. The New Mexico Supreme Court decided one such case, State ex rel. Children, Youth & Families Dep't v. Keon H. (In re Anhayla H.), in June 2018. This Note compares this case to others with similar fact patterns and argues this decision may set a precedent that reduces what quantum of work is considered reasonable when CYFD assists an incarcerated parent. This Note then proposes a legislative solution to the difficulties inherent in assisting incarcerated individuals who are involved in termination of parental rights proceedings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides county-level estimates of the cumulative prevalence of four levels of Child Protective Services (CPS) contact using administrative data from the 20 most populous counties in the United States. Rates of CPS investigation are extremely high in almost every county. Racial and ethnic inequality in case outcomes is large in some counties. The total median investigation rate was 41.3%; the risk for Black, Hispanic, and White children exceeded 20% in all counties. Risks of having a CPS investigation were highest for Black children (43.2 to 72.0%). Black children also experienced high rates of later-stage CPS contact, with rates often above 20% for confirmed maltreatment, 10% for foster care placement, and 2% for termination of parental rights (TPR). The only other children who experienced such extreme rates of later-stage CPS interventions were American Indian/Alaska Native children in Middlesex, MA; Hispanic children in Bexar, TX; and all children except Asian/Pacific Islander children in Maricopa, AZ. The latter has uniquely high rates of late-stage CPS interventions. In some jurisdictions, such as New York, NY, (0.2%) and Cook, IL (0.2%), very few children experienced TPR. These results show that early CPS interventions are ubiquitous in large counties but with marked variation in how CPS systems respond to these investigations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study expands the literature on parents’ mental health and risk of poor parenting by exploring the association between parental mental health diagnoses and types of child maltreatment among 522 parents who were adjudicated for child maltreatment by Israeli courts. The study was cross-sectional and used a manual for the content analysis of court cases. The results showed that 62% of the parents suffered from mental health problems, including emotional problems, personality disorders, mental illness or intellectual disability. Child neglect was associated with all types of mental health diagnoses for both the mothers and fathers. However, child abuse and specifically physical abuse were associated only with the mother’s mental health diagnoses. The mother’s mental illness and personality disorder predicted child neglect and the mother’s personality disorder predicted child abuse, after controlling for poverty, child’s intellectual disability and age. No mental health diagnosis of the father predicted child maltreatment. The study concluded that the effect of mental health condition is greater for mothers. A mother’s personality disorder and mental illness should raise a special concern. Screening for maternal mental health in every case involved in the child welfare system and implications of the findings for prevention of child maltreatment are discussed.

The article presents the results of the analysis of women's life stories whose parental rights are terminated. The applied sociological research is conducted in three Russian regions: Belgorod, Saratov regions and the Trans-Baikal Territory in 2017. The main method for the collection of primary data is the depth interview (n = 15). The study evaluates the analysis of an individual case and the reconstruction of frames which are based on the observed practices of destructive maternity, and help to identify two main strategies of women's behavior referring to the role of "mother". The first strategy is related to the place of motherhood in the self-identity system that means the stronger the awareness of a woman herself as a "parent", the more likely the child will be returned home. One of the most stimulating factors increasing the maternal awareness is the influence of woman's immediate environment, including members of extended family or a new spouse. The second strategy demonstrates conscious changes in women's life trajectories regarding voluntary renunciation from the role of parent under difficult circumstances. The subjective paradigms of the second strategy, based on the self-excuse (the child will be better in an orphanage or in a foster family) and are accompanied by the identity crisis and the deep degradation of woman's personality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many jurisdictions, once a parent has her rights terminated to one child, the State can use that decision to justify the termination of parental rights to another child. The State can do so regardless of whether the parent is fit to parent the second child. This article explores this practice, examines its origins, and discusses its constitutional inadequacies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The article focuses on parental rights in the U.S. Topics discussed include amendments to reinstatement of parental rights statutes for fostering child welfare law; enactment of Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 for the same; and challenges faced by biological parent termination of parental rights.

The article focuses on continuing efforts to improve child support enforcement in the U.S. Topics discussed include ex officio preliminary review by the attorneys and judges tribunal of an application under the treaty to recognize a foreign support order; enactment of U.S. Uniform Interstate Family Support Act for the same; and analysing impact of termination of parental rights on child welfare.

Background Information about parents with intellectual and developmental disabilities ( IDD) in the child protection system ( CPS) continues to evolve. This study examined characteristics, experiences and representation of parents with IDD across three CPS decision points, as compared to parents with other disabilities and parents without disabilities in the United States. Methods The sample consisted of 303,039 individuals: 2,081 were individuals identified as parents in a CPS investigation; 1,101 had children in out-of-home care ( OHC); and 308 experienced termination of parental rights ( TPR). Descriptive statistics, chi-square analysis, disparity indices and logistic regression were employed. Results Parents with IDD were significantly more likely than parents without disabilities (but not significantly more likely than parents with other types of disabilities) to experience disproportionately representation. Conclusions Parents with IDD are generally over-represented within CPS; however, this representation is dependent upon the comparison group utilized and other risk factors. CPS system-level changes are necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the factors that New York courts consider when making person legally responsible (PLR) determinations involving the care of children under the New York Family Court Act, and it mentions the New York Court of Appeals' ruling in the case In re Trenasia J. which deals with the legal rights of a child's uncle. The legal rights and obligations of a child's parents, stepparents, and babysitters are examined, along with a child's guardian and the termination of parental rights.

This study examined the effect of efforts made by child welfare case managers to involve parents in case processes on two divergent case outcomes: reunification and the termination of parental rights (TPR). The sample was comprised of a cohort of children who received child protection services while in out-of-home care during fiscal year 2009–2010 and were randomly selected by the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) for their case management quality of practice reviews. Findings revealed that when child welfare case managers made efforts to encourage and support parents in participating in child-related decisions and activities, there were increased chances for timely reunification. However, these same efforts were only associated with a lower risk of TPR for mothers and not for fathers. Implications of these findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on an analysis of 261 court decisions, the study demonstrates how the addition of a “parental incapacity” clause as grounds for termination of parental rights (TPR) in Israeli law affected the decision-making process. Specifically, the study examines how the legal reasoning, the rate of TPR rulings, and the type of cases presented to the courts changed following the introduction of the new clause. Less emphasis on parents’ rights was found as opposed to greater emphasis on parental social normativity and a higher rate of TPR rulings based on “parental incapacity.” These findings and their implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

• Recent research using synthetic cohort life tables highlights the ubiquity of CPS contact at various levels (termination of parental rights, foster care placement, confirmed maltreatment, and investigation) at the national and, in some instances, county levels. • This project contributes to that broader agenda by providing the first state-level estimates of each of these types of CPS contact by race/ethnicity and state of residence. • Results highlight dramatic state-level variation in each of these levels of CPS contact. Prior estimates of the cumulative risks of child welfare system contact illustrate the prominence of this system in the lives of children in the United States (U.S.). However, these estimates report national data on a system administered at the state and local levels and are unable to detail potential simultaneous geographic and racial/ethnic variation in the prevalence of these events. Using 2015–2019 data from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System and Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System, we use synthetic cohort life tables to estimate cumulative state- and race/ethnicity-specific risks by age 18 of experiencing: (1) a child protective services investigation, (2) confirmed maltreatment, (3) foster care placement, and (4) termination of parental rights for children in the U.S. In the U.S., state-level investigation risks ranged from 14% to 63%, confirmed maltreatment risks from 3% to 27%, foster care placement risks from 2% to 18%, and risks of parental rights termination from 0% to 8%. Racial/ethnic disparities in these risks varied greatly across states, with larger disparities at higher levels of involvement. Whereas Black children had higher risks of all events than white children in nearly all states, Asian children had consistently lower risks. Finally, ratios comparing risks of child welfare events show these prevalences did not move in parallel, across states or racial/ethnic groups. This study provides new estimates of spatial and racial/ethnic variation in children's lifetime risks of maltreatment investigation, confirmed maltreatment, foster care placement, and termination of parental rights in the U.S., as well as relative risks of these events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Termination of parental rights ( TPR) proceedings are among the most important family court activities. This study contributes to knowledge of the TPR process by illustrating practices employed in TPR proceedings and considering ways that certain practices can hinder perceptions of fairness. TPR court records from one state were analyzed using inductive coding procedures. The analysis identified nine categories of threats to perceptions of fairness in the TPR process. Findings have implications for procedural justice and the legitimacy of child welfare practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parental cooperation with social services in child maltreatment cases is fundamental to all forms of family intervention. If rehabilitation efforts fail and the child cannot be safely reunified with his parents, the state is authorized to initiate termination of parental rights (TPR) proceedings. Given the scant literature on parental cooperation and TPR, the present study examined associations between parental cooperation and TPR in Israeli court cases of child maltreatment. Comparisons between uncooperative ( n = 106) and cooperative parents ( n = 155) revealed that uncooperative parents were more than three times more likely to have their parental rights terminated than cooperative parents, controlling for child and parent characteristics. Parents who did not cooperate with social services had high levels of mental health problems, substance abuse, criminal records, and poverty and their children had more mental health concerns and suffered more from neglect. We discuss the important implications resulting from these findings, which include: the need to view the engagement of parents in the child welfare process as a specific goal in itself and develop research-based models specifically targeting multiple-problem families at high risk of TPR; the need for professionals to build a good working alliance with parents in order to strengthen their participation; the need to take into account different background conditions and stressors related to the parents in order to facilitate greater cooperation; and the need to assess the potential mental health needs of children involved in cases of maltreatment with low parental cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]