A Role for Communities in Reasonable Efforts to Prevent Removal

Abstract

Ostensibly, the "child welfare system" exists to safeguard the well-being of minors. However, child welfare agencies often exercise their authority by removing children in the aftermath of family crises that less disruptive upstream interventions could have mitigated. Children from low-income families are over-represented in the child welfare system; they are removed too frequently from communities that have been systemically marginalized.