American Child Welfare System Has Lost Its Way, Says Rochester Historian

By Sandra Knispel, University of Rochester

A shift starting in the late 1960s has targeted poor families with unnecessary investigations and child removals at the expense of services, argues Mical Raz.

Black children are removed from their families at much greater rates than any other race or ethnicity in this country. At the same time the sheer number of all child abuse investigations in the US is staggering: experts estimate that by age 18 one out of three children has been the subject of a child protective services investigation. Yet, many of these investigations and removals are unjustified and stem . . .