Opinion | What Happens When Abusive Parents Keep Their Children
Opinion | To Keep Children Safe, We Still Need More Foster Care, Not Less The New York Times
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Inadequate Foster Care System and the Impact on Child Safety and Welfare
Introduction
In February 2023, Phoenix Castro was born in San Jose, Calif., suffering from neonatal opioid withdrawal after being exposed to fentanyl and methamphetamine in her mother’s womb.
Her mother was sent to jail and then ended up at a drug treatment facility. But her father, who had multiple drug arrests, was allowed to take the newborn to his San Jose apartment, even though a social worker had warned that the baby would be at “very high” risk if she was sent home. The county’s child protection agency had already removed the couple’s two older children because of neglect.
Three months later, Phoenix was dead from an overdose of fentanyl and methamphetamine.
The ensuing uproar, chronicled in detail by The Mercury News, focused on new efforts by the county to keep at-risk families together. In the past, children often would be removed from unsafe homes and placed in foster care, and newborns like Phoenix in all likelihood would not have been sent home.
Those policy changes led to a “significant” drop in removals of children from troubled homes in the San Jose area, according to the state’s social services agency. They reflected a larger shift in child welfare thinking nationwide that has upended the foster care system. Reducing the number of children placed in foster care has been hailed as an achievement. But leaving children in families with histories of abuse and neglect to avoid the trauma of removing them has had tragic results.
The Impact of Avoiding Foster Care
We need to ask whether avoiding foster care, seemingly at all costs — especially for children in families mired in violence, addiction or mental illness — is too often compromising their safety and welfare.
The use of foster care has been in decline even as more children are dying from abuse and neglect in their homes. In recent years, the number of children in foster care fell by nearly 16 percent while the fatality rate from abuse and neglect rose by almost 18 percent. Many factors were and are at work, among them caseworker inexperience, a lack of resources and the high bars for removing children from their homes that have been erected by child welfare agencies, policymakers and judges.
SDGs, Targets, and Indicators
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SDGs addressed or connected to the issues highlighted in the article:
- SDG 1: No Poverty
- SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being
- SDG 5: Gender Equality
- SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities
- SDG 16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions
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Specific targets under those SDGs based on the article’s content:
- SDG 1.3: Implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all, including floors, and by 2030 achieve substantial coverage of the poor and the vulnerable.
- SDG 3.2: By 2030, end preventable deaths of newborns and children under 5 years of age, with all countries aiming to reduce neonatal mortality to at least as low as 12 per 1,000 live births and under-5 mortality to at least as low as 25 per 1,000 live births.
- SDG 5.2: Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation.
- SDG 10.2: By 2030, empower and promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status.
- SDG 16.2: End abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence against and torture of children.
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Indicators mentioned or implied in the article:
- Number of children removed from troubled homes
- Fatality rate from abuse and neglect
- Number of cases involving violence, addiction, or mental illness in families
- Number of social workers and their experience level
- Availability of resources for child welfare agencies
- Criteria and standards for removing children from their homes
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Table: SDGs, Targets, and Indicators
SDGs Targets Indicators SDG 1: No Poverty SDG 1.3: Implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all, including floors, and by 2030 achieve substantial coverage of the poor and the vulnerable. Number of children removed from troubled homes SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being SDG 3.2: By 2030, end preventable deaths of newborns and children under 5 years of age, with all countries aiming to reduce neonatal mortality to at least as low as 12 per 1,000 live births and under-5 mortality to at least as low as 25 per 1,000 live births. Fatality rate from abuse and neglect SDG 5: Gender Equality SDG 5.2: Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation. Number of cases involving violence, addiction, or mental illness in families SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities SDG 10.2: By 2030, empower and promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status. Number of social workers and their experience level SDG 16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions SDG 16.2: End abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence against and torture of children. Availability of resources for child welfare agencies
Criteria and standards for removing children from their homes
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Fuente: nytimes.com
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