The solution is not to involve families in the foster care system but to help them address their problems without separating their children from them. Family separation does more harm than the problems they’re supposedly being saved from. And the vast majority of reports to CPS are based on neglect, not abuse. Poverty-based neglect, at that.
I live not far from some very bad neighborhoods and walked through them a few times. You can feel the angst and the suffering in the air. It's right to work towards remediating the conditons that create these social ills, but we need operate in reality. To simply ignore them and pretend they don't exist is just ignoring the hard facts and undermines your stated goal.
I am a CASA volunteer - a Court Appointed Special Advocate and based on my experiences doing that, I have thoughts and observations about this. I work with kids in the foster system (and juvenile justice) to help make sure that they have their voices heard by the courts and social services, and that they are getting their needs met (education, transportation, medical, legal, etc). I agree with what Mr. Mangual has written. Some of these kids come in from the most unbelievable home situations, and I agree they should have a safe place that they can go to when they can’t get it at home. It’s not a surprise that there are disproportionate numbers of black, or where I live Hispanic, kids in the system. A kid is a kid and I don’t think there should be exceptions made in how they are treated because of race or income or any other reason.
All that being said, my observations are that being in “the system” isn’t necessarily a good thing. There aren’t enough foster or resource families for all the kids that come into foster care. For various reasons, kids are moved between homes, often frequently. I’ve worked with one youth who entered care at the age of 13 1/2. By her 18th birthday, she had been moved 17 times. When kids have to be moved, they often get put in the first place available which can be in a different city or even a different state, and older kids are often moving between group homes because they can’t get placed with families. This means they have no consistency in where they live, who they live with, where they go to school, who their friends are, and for the older kids, they can’t keep jobs. People who become foster/resource parents get paid by the state or county to take kids, and as bad is it is to say, some people become foster parents because of the money rather than because they want to provide a loving, safe home for needy kids. That doesn’t mean they are bad people, but it also doesn’t mean kids get the best environment. Additionally, kids are often not placed with their siblings, so not only are they separated from their parents (who, despite bad home situations, they love), but they aren’t with brothers and sisters.
Social workers have hard jobs - low pay, too many foster kids, and a lot of bureaucracy to deal with. The hardest thing for me to see is that these kids are definitely moved into a “system” where the social workers and therapists are busy doing all the things they are mandated to do with the ultimate goal of family reunification. Because they don’t have enough time, and because of all the rules, kids aren’t treated as individuals with unique situations and needs, but rather as “boxes to be checked off.” I worked with one youth who didn’t want to be reunified with her parents, and her social worker, therapists, and I all recommended that she not be - but the judge randomly decided that there were some cultural things happening at home that none of us understood, so she reunified them. The results were not good but the reunification statistic was achieved.
It’s hard working with these kids but they need the advocates, help, and guidance - they need us as volunteers to be with them as a consistent positive adult in their lives.
I’ve read everyone’s comments on here. I would like to urge everyone to spend less time worrying about whether these are left or right issues, and just focus on the kids and helping them. Obviously the foster system is a problem - an under-funded, under-resourced system, and an under-appreciated need. Doing things like eliminating mandated reporters, not reporting for reasons like race, etc are extremely poor choices and will only serve to make things worse for these kids. (Over half of people who become incarcerated as adults have been in the foster system.) But how about everyone start thinking about what they can do to help the kids - be a foster parent or a CASA volunteer or a tutor or something. And contact your local, state and federal representatives to let them know what you want. Do it because it’s the right thing to do, not because you’re angry with someone else’s opinion.
My father was shot 6 times with a shotgun by a 16 yr old kid. That child, had been in a foster home with “family” while his parents were in jail. He had gone to juvy at 14 for armed robbery. Let back out because “kindness” and out back in the foster home that linked him to gangs in the first place. I consider raising a 14 yr old to commit armed Robbery a good reason to lose
Custody of a child. So, soon after being “freed” from juvy, the gang had him shoot and kill my dad in a car jacking. Then he spent the rest of his young adult life in high security prison. Who are these people who keep putting vulnerable children back into gang households under the guise of “family unity”, or “community support”. Everyone loses, the child and my family, no one wins. Also, stop talking to me about stricter guns laws , there is no law that gave that 16 yr old kid a gun. Criminals don’t care about gun laws.
Children always land at the bottom of the heap when it comes to social policy, funding, and just plain general concern. They can’t vote, they have no money and they’re utterly defenseless. I spent most of my working life on the frontlines of children’s protective services and criminal justice. Until fairly recently, the sentencing guidelines in my state for violent crimes against adults were far harsher than those for children. CPS workers were paid far less than those working in the adult CJ system.
This past year, I conducted my own small, unscientific survey, asking my very progressive friends who in our society did they consider most vulnerable. To a person, they said “the transgendered” and “minorities.” Not one mentioned children and I wasn’t surprised.
So thank you for taking this noble stand and for writing this article.
Thank you, Mr Mangual, for your concern, article and hoped-for future contributions to ending this madness.
It was in the late 1980s, when, I was at a party thrown by sociology PhD students at Harvard. I was many years younger, a relative of one of the students. Discussion turned to an event, some crime was committed in Boston (bad enough that it made the headlines) but the race of the accused was not mentioned in the mainstream press (newspapers/tv). Nevertheless, somehow we were all aware that he was black. I asked one of the students why none of the outlets mentioned the perpetrator's race, especially since it was already known. I still remember what he said: because it gives ammunition to the other side - the other side being "the right".
Most of the proposed changes the author listed are for the worse, except possibly the removal of anonymous reporting. That is known to be frequently misused, and rather used to get back at neighbors for various unrelated offences and annoyances, and often just by busibodies.
I’m a pediatrician. It’s nuts to say that we should not be mandated reporters. If you close your eyes I guess you won’t see the abuse and neglect but kids are going to die in the name of some perversion of racial equity wherever what even means.
What Leftist policy does not hurt the most vunerable? When most people hear of how many people are homeless in CA, they think it's because there is no money. But CA spent Billions of dollars - which all went to the "fix the homeless" state employees. If you fix the problem, they don't have jobs. No one who does not know that billions of dollars were "lost" can believe that is what is happening. If you ignore it - it isn't happening.
Has there ever been a committee that has ever achieved its true purpose? I think not. Especially woke government committee with an agenda we know is wrong.
Mm. Here in Washington state, I do believe we’ve done away with any worries about parents who use drugs around children. Oh sure, they just have to have a “safety plan” in place for when they get the hankering to get high and their kids are around. Didn’t work out so well for some kids, including the most recent victim, 4 year old Ariel Garcia, who was allegedly stabbed to death by his meth addict mom.
Oh, no. This breaks my heart for these children. I will never forget the first time I learned a child was being removed from a parent. I was at church at a subsidized apartment complex because many of those people were elderly or didn't have cars, so the church services were provided there for those who wanted to attend. I went one week with a friend and CPS was at one of the apartments. The little boy's parent was on meth and had a mental breakdown. She had broken both of his legs because he wouldn't stop crying and she thought he was a demon. He was 3 years old. I know that is hard to read, but it's even harder to think no one will be rescuing kids like him. Please, continue to try to talk sense to them in any way possible. You did the right thing by resigning.
The solution is not to involve families in the foster care system but to help them address their problems without separating their children from them. Family separation does more harm than the problems they’re supposedly being saved from. And the vast majority of reports to CPS are based on neglect, not abuse. Poverty-based neglect, at that.
How effective are Big Brother/Big Sister programs?
I live not far from some very bad neighborhoods and walked through them a few times. You can feel the angst and the suffering in the air. It's right to work towards remediating the conditons that create these social ills, but we need operate in reality. To simply ignore them and pretend they don't exist is just ignoring the hard facts and undermines your stated goal.
I’m sorry you resigned. You can’t change the policy if you’re not in the room.
I hope you are right
I am a CASA volunteer - a Court Appointed Special Advocate and based on my experiences doing that, I have thoughts and observations about this. I work with kids in the foster system (and juvenile justice) to help make sure that they have their voices heard by the courts and social services, and that they are getting their needs met (education, transportation, medical, legal, etc). I agree with what Mr. Mangual has written. Some of these kids come in from the most unbelievable home situations, and I agree they should have a safe place that they can go to when they can’t get it at home. It’s not a surprise that there are disproportionate numbers of black, or where I live Hispanic, kids in the system. A kid is a kid and I don’t think there should be exceptions made in how they are treated because of race or income or any other reason.
All that being said, my observations are that being in “the system” isn’t necessarily a good thing. There aren’t enough foster or resource families for all the kids that come into foster care. For various reasons, kids are moved between homes, often frequently. I’ve worked with one youth who entered care at the age of 13 1/2. By her 18th birthday, she had been moved 17 times. When kids have to be moved, they often get put in the first place available which can be in a different city or even a different state, and older kids are often moving between group homes because they can’t get placed with families. This means they have no consistency in where they live, who they live with, where they go to school, who their friends are, and for the older kids, they can’t keep jobs. People who become foster/resource parents get paid by the state or county to take kids, and as bad is it is to say, some people become foster parents because of the money rather than because they want to provide a loving, safe home for needy kids. That doesn’t mean they are bad people, but it also doesn’t mean kids get the best environment. Additionally, kids are often not placed with their siblings, so not only are they separated from their parents (who, despite bad home situations, they love), but they aren’t with brothers and sisters.
Social workers have hard jobs - low pay, too many foster kids, and a lot of bureaucracy to deal with. The hardest thing for me to see is that these kids are definitely moved into a “system” where the social workers and therapists are busy doing all the things they are mandated to do with the ultimate goal of family reunification. Because they don’t have enough time, and because of all the rules, kids aren’t treated as individuals with unique situations and needs, but rather as “boxes to be checked off.” I worked with one youth who didn’t want to be reunified with her parents, and her social worker, therapists, and I all recommended that she not be - but the judge randomly decided that there were some cultural things happening at home that none of us understood, so she reunified them. The results were not good but the reunification statistic was achieved.
It’s hard working with these kids but they need the advocates, help, and guidance - they need us as volunteers to be with them as a consistent positive adult in their lives.
I’ve read everyone’s comments on here. I would like to urge everyone to spend less time worrying about whether these are left or right issues, and just focus on the kids and helping them. Obviously the foster system is a problem - an under-funded, under-resourced system, and an under-appreciated need. Doing things like eliminating mandated reporters, not reporting for reasons like race, etc are extremely poor choices and will only serve to make things worse for these kids. (Over half of people who become incarcerated as adults have been in the foster system.) But how about everyone start thinking about what they can do to help the kids - be a foster parent or a CASA volunteer or a tutor or something. And contact your local, state and federal representatives to let them know what you want. Do it because it’s the right thing to do, not because you’re angry with someone else’s opinion.
My father was shot 6 times with a shotgun by a 16 yr old kid. That child, had been in a foster home with “family” while his parents were in jail. He had gone to juvy at 14 for armed robbery. Let back out because “kindness” and out back in the foster home that linked him to gangs in the first place. I consider raising a 14 yr old to commit armed Robbery a good reason to lose
Custody of a child. So, soon after being “freed” from juvy, the gang had him shoot and kill my dad in a car jacking. Then he spent the rest of his young adult life in high security prison. Who are these people who keep putting vulnerable children back into gang households under the guise of “family unity”, or “community support”. Everyone loses, the child and my family, no one wins. Also, stop talking to me about stricter guns laws , there is no law that gave that 16 yr old kid a gun. Criminals don’t care about gun laws.
Children always land at the bottom of the heap when it comes to social policy, funding, and just plain general concern. They can’t vote, they have no money and they’re utterly defenseless. I spent most of my working life on the frontlines of children’s protective services and criminal justice. Until fairly recently, the sentencing guidelines in my state for violent crimes against adults were far harsher than those for children. CPS workers were paid far less than those working in the adult CJ system.
This past year, I conducted my own small, unscientific survey, asking my very progressive friends who in our society did they consider most vulnerable. To a person, they said “the transgendered” and “minorities.” Not one mentioned children and I wasn’t surprised.
So thank you for taking this noble stand and for writing this article.
Thank you, Mr Mangual, for your concern, article and hoped-for future contributions to ending this madness.
It was in the late 1980s, when, I was at a party thrown by sociology PhD students at Harvard. I was many years younger, a relative of one of the students. Discussion turned to an event, some crime was committed in Boston (bad enough that it made the headlines) but the race of the accused was not mentioned in the mainstream press (newspapers/tv). Nevertheless, somehow we were all aware that he was black. I asked one of the students why none of the outlets mentioned the perpetrator's race, especially since it was already known. I still remember what he said: because it gives ammunition to the other side - the other side being "the right".
The madness has a long history. Will it ever end?
Most of the proposed changes the author listed are for the worse, except possibly the removal of anonymous reporting. That is known to be frequently misused, and rather used to get back at neighbors for various unrelated offences and annoyances, and often just by busibodies.
So what.
I’m a pediatrician. It’s nuts to say that we should not be mandated reporters. If you close your eyes I guess you won’t see the abuse and neglect but kids are going to die in the name of some perversion of racial equity wherever what even means.
I live in Nebraska, and EVERYONE is a mandatory reporter. As it should be.
Interesting! I didn’t know that. Thanks for sharing!
What Leftist policy does not hurt the most vunerable? When most people hear of how many people are homeless in CA, they think it's because there is no money. But CA spent Billions of dollars - which all went to the "fix the homeless" state employees. If you fix the problem, they don't have jobs. No one who does not know that billions of dollars were "lost" can believe that is what is happening. If you ignore it - it isn't happening.
Has there ever been a committee that has ever achieved its true purpose? I think not. Especially woke government committee with an agenda we know is wrong.
Mm. Here in Washington state, I do believe we’ve done away with any worries about parents who use drugs around children. Oh sure, they just have to have a “safety plan” in place for when they get the hankering to get high and their kids are around. Didn’t work out so well for some kids, including the most recent victim, 4 year old Ariel Garcia, who was allegedly stabbed to death by his meth addict mom.
😭
Bravo Mr. Mangual.
This is a perfect example of my definition of most progressive policies.
Good Intentions = Unintended Consequences
Leading with your heart instead of your head, is not a good thing when it involves public policy.
Oh, no. This breaks my heart for these children. I will never forget the first time I learned a child was being removed from a parent. I was at church at a subsidized apartment complex because many of those people were elderly or didn't have cars, so the church services were provided there for those who wanted to attend. I went one week with a friend and CPS was at one of the apartments. The little boy's parent was on meth and had a mental breakdown. She had broken both of his legs because he wouldn't stop crying and she thought he was a demon. He was 3 years old. I know that is hard to read, but it's even harder to think no one will be rescuing kids like him. Please, continue to try to talk sense to them in any way possible. You did the right thing by resigning.