Saturday, July 5, 2008

Outmoded Rules

Each year, thousands of children taken from troubled homes are eventually placed with a parent or close relative in another state, often for eventual adoption. Most of the transfers take months and some take more than a year because of what experts say are outmoded rules.

Such transfers are governed by the little-known Interstate Compact for the Placement of Children. The pact, adopted decades ago as law by every state, was designed to protect foster children from unsafe placements, but it is being challenged by many experts as inflicting unnecessary emotional harm on children, and for not requiring the court oversight that is normal in other custody cases.

Under the pact, the “sending” state, where the children live, must formally ask the “receiving” state to evaluate prospective guardians and visit their homes. Then the receiving state must carry out the evaluation and report back. The pact imposes no deadlines, and overburdened agencies may take months to send the initial request or to make a home visit. And it affords no right of courtroom appeal for the sending state or the relative when a social worker rejects a prospective guardian.

Vivek S. Sankaran, a law professor with the Child Advocacy Law Clinic at the University of Michigan : “Kids are unnecessarily remaining in overtaxed foster systems, when there are relatives who are ready and willing to take them immediately.”

Full Article and Source:
Waits Plague Transfers of Children to Relatives’ Care

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