Trials involving allegations of abuse and neglect that have led to the involvement of child protective services and termination of parental rights often touch on issues of family preservation, foster care and residential care, adoption, services for adolescence, the impact of early trauma and stress on children’s development, and the modifications currently taking place in the child welfare system in response to this new information. The critical challenges of poverty and substance abuse, the importance of the community in shaping child welfare services, racial disproportionality in the system, the changing response of the system to LGBT issues, and services to ameliorate the difficulties of youth leaving the system are all grist for the mill when speaking about the work of a child welfare agency, and court cases reflect many of these challenges.
When I asked Senior Assistant Attorney General Michael Besso, the one who most represents the agency before the state’s appellate courts, what he thinks will be a burgeoning issue in 2016, he provided the following: “Some of the more complicated cases I have been handling for the department suggest a developing ‘hot’ issue: international aspects of the department’s child protection mission. One indicator is the small but growing number of appellate cases—In re Pedro J. (Appellate Court, Dec. 2014), In re Santiago G. (Connecticut Supreme Court, August 2015), and In re Oreoluwa O. (Supreme Court, argued Nov. 2015)—which illustrate the complex issues that can arise when the department strives to fulfill its duties to protect children and, ideally, to preserve them with families. Putting aside the specific facts of any one case, together these cases reveal that the world is indeed ‘shrinking’—these cases involve children and families from Central America, South America, and Africa.
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are third party online distributors of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM's legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law customers are able to access and use ALM's content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, The New York Law Journal, and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information.
For questions call 1-877-256-2472 or contact us at [email protected]
