Video Spotlight
In this powerful TEDx talk, Vanessa shares her personal journey as a survivor of the family policing system also known as the child removal / welfare system, and how it led her to become a human rights lawyer and advocate for change.
In the US, youth in foster care are nearly twice as likely as war veterans to suffer from PTSD. Placed in foster care at just 11 months old, Sixto Cancel experienced the faults of the system firsthand. Now, he advocates for reform child welfare by centering kinship care, or placing a child with an extended family member or a familiar adult.
Find Books
Torn Apart by Location: Available OnlinePublication Date: 2022An award-winning scholar exposes the foundational racism of the child welfare system and calls for radical change.
Preventing Child Maltreatment in the U. S. by Location: Available OnlinePublication Date: 2022Preventing Child Maltreatment: Multicultural Considerations in the United States is the first book in a concentrated series that examines child maltreatment across minoritized, cultural groups.
Confronting the Racist Legacy of the American Child Welfare System by Location: Available OnlinePublication Date: 2023Alan J. Dettlaff presents a call to abolish the American child welfare system due to the harm and destruction it causes Black families.
Children of Coercive Control by Location: Available OnlinePublication Date: 2023Stark describes why he would abolish the child welfare system and replace the ameliorative approach to child abuse and child protection with criminal laws against coercive control, and support independence for women and children.
Preventing Child Maltreatment in the U. S. by Location: Available OnlinePublication Date: 2022Child maltreatment occurs in the Black community at higher rates than any other racial group.
"Social work and the movement to abolish the child welfare system" by Location: Book Chapter Available OnlinePublication Date: 2022The Handbook showcases the global influences and path-breaking ideas of critical social work and examines the different stances taken on important political and ethical issues.
"From Denial to Disproportionality" by Location: Book Chapter Available OnlinePublication Date: 2023The chapter also briefly explores current movements to reform and abolish the child welfare system and lay the groundwork for next steps.
Find Articles
This is a selection of articles available through BU Libraries:
- "It is not a broken system, it is a system that needs to be broken: the upEND movement to abolish the child welfare system" by Alan Dettlaff et. al (2020). Available here.
- "Why Abolition" by Dorothy Roberts (2023). Available here.
- "Child Welfare Abolition: Critical Theories, Human Rights, and Heteronormativity" by Amy Norie (2022). Available here.
- "Beyond Mandated Reporting: Debunking Assumptions to Support Children and Families" by Talia Gruber (2023). Available here.
- "Mical Raz, Abusive Policies: How the American Child Welfare System Lost Its Way" by Emily Horowitz (2023). Available here.
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"Outcomes following child welfare services: what are they and do they differ for black children?" by Richard Barth et. al (2020). Available here.
These articles are available externally:
Data and Statistics
Child Welfare Outcomes Report Data Site: Provides information on state performance in seven categories of outcomes that are widely accepted performance objectives for child welfare practice.
Massachusetts Child Welfare Data Reports: Includes state reports, reports for federal government, and juvenile court statistics.
Massachusetts Statistics: Child population, maltreatment, welfare and caseworker visits from 2018-2022.
Adoption Statistics Report from Administration for Children and Families: Offers adoption and foster care statistics state-by-state.
