Should Child Welfare Hearings Be Public?

Posted by Jason Cherkis on Mar. 3, 2011 at 4:39 pm
Washington City Paper

On Feb. 3, Judith Sandalow, the executive director of the Children's Law Center, testified before the D.C. Council on the state of city's child-welfare agency. Her verdict [PDF] was brutal:

"The District's child abuse and neglect system requires dramatic reform at all stages. On the front end, the government does not adequately prevent abuse and neglect. Nor does CFSA do a good enough job keeping children safely with their birth families. Once CFSA removes children, it does not serve them well in foster care—and they state in foster care too long because CFSA fails to reunify them with their parents or find alternative permanent families."

Even more troubling than Sandalow's assessment is the fact that her assessment has been made nearly every year for the past two decades. It is by now cliche to refer to the District's Child and Family Services Agency as "troubled" or "horrible" or "under court monitor." FULL STORY