Strengthening Representation of Parents in Child Welfare

The National Project to Improve Representation for Parents Involved in the Child Welfare System aims to strengthen representation of parents and provide them a voice in the child welfare process. The project website details the project's work in the area of training and technical assistance, assessments, and relevant articles, including standards of practice. To help attorneys who represent parents in child welfare cases, the project maintains a listserv, offers specialized training, and holds an annual conference. The project is a collaboration between the American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law, Casey Family Programs, the Annie E. ...

Restoring Parental Rights After Termination

Every State has statutes providing for the termination of parental rights by a court. Once parental rights have been terminated, the child is legally free to be placed for adoption. A new factsheet from the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) provides an overview of laws in nine States that allow for the reinstatement of parental rights following termination of parental rights. If a permanent placement has not been achieved within a specific timeframe, a petition may be filed with the court requesting reinstatement of the parent’s rights. If the court determines that the parent is now able to provide a safe home for the child, the ...

The Missing Girls of China

This article by law professor David M. Smolin analyzes the causes and possible solutions to the sex ratio imbalance of China, as well as the causes of the diminishing numbers of intercountry adoptions from China. Part I provides statistical, historical, and cultural analysis of China's "missing girls" (sex-ratio imbalance), concluding that sex selective abortion has become the primary cause of China missing approximately ten percent of females at birth. The article focuses on both cultural factors and China's population control policies as causative factors. Part II discusses population control, declining fertility, and the devaluation of girls and ...

CA Family Courts Helping Pedophiles Get Child Custody

According to this article in SF Weekly, Looking out for the children who find themselves in the middle of bitter divorces is the most important function of the state's family courts, and arguably one of the most significant duties of the judiciary as a whole. Yet evidence has mounted in recent years that it is a responsibility in which family court officials are sometimes failing dramatically. Interviews with dozens of parents, activists, lawyers, judges, children, and former family court employees, as well as a review of hundreds of pages of family and criminal court documents, indicate that the system's methods for assessing whether child sexual ...

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