Updates
Mom Investigated for Neglect: “There’s Something Really Wrong”
“For something like this to happen to me, there’s something really wrong.” That is the thought of a lot of good parents who suddenly find themselves caught up in a child welfare investigation without cause, and it’s the exact words of Wilmette, Illinois, mother Corey Widen to the Chicago Tribune last week. On August 2,…
Read MoreMedically Kidnapped, Forced to Escape
Image from Google Earth of a Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. Here we go again. Just when I started to think nothing would surprise me anymore, the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota held a teenager hostage a la Justina Pelletier, working to cut her parents out of the picture and take control of the girl’s healthcare…
Read MoreThe “Age of Fear” in the “Land of Surveillance”
It’s one of the toughest balancing acts you face as a parent: how to teach your child independence and self-reliance while keeping them safe in a dangerous and interconnected world. I say “interconnected” because, as wonderful as connection is, in some instances it can cause more harm than good. A key example: anonymous reporting. You…
Read MoreNew Guidance Protects Student Privacy, Parents’ Rights
New Guidance from the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) is bolstering protection for student privacy, while sending a warning to organizations who might abuse the ACT and SAT testing systems for your child’s data. Background Traditionally, students registered and paid for the tests on their own with parental consent. The nature of the privacy relationship…
Read MoreTroubling Trends in Foster Care
The Parental Rights Foundation this week reviewed the five latest AFCARS reports and uncovered some disturbing trends. According to the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) summary of 2016 data released in October of last year and the four previous reports, the number of children in foster care nationwide has been trending…
Read MorePrepare to Be Shocked
Prepare to be shocked, or even angry. Imagine you are driving your young daughter home from preschool. You’ve just endured a child welfare investigation stemming from allegations that someone else physically abused your daughter, allegations which have thankfully been deemed unfounded. The intrusion was mercifully brief compared to many, and the investigator is now out…
Read MoreThe Law Versus Judge Lyris Younge
Photo from Google.Room 5A of the Philadelphia Family Court is one of those places parental rights go to die. Or it would be, if presiding judge Lyris Younge had her way. “She has the capacity to be a good judge,” one lawyer who has served before her told The Legal Intelligencer for a recent article,…
Read MoreDisproportionality of Minority Children in Child Welfare Cases
Disproportionality in Child Welfare Cases Download the New Report Today! Yes, please send me the free report, along with information about parental rights. Email Zip State ALABAMA ALASKA ARIZONA ARKANSAS CALIFORNIA COLORADO CONNECTICUT DELAWARE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA FLORIDA GEORGIA HAWAII IDAHO ILLINOIS INDIANA IOWA KANSAS KENTUCKY LOUISIANA MAINE MARYLAND MASSACHUSETTS MICHIGAN MINNESOTA MISSISSIPPI MISSOURI MONTANA…
Read MoreStrip Searches Harm Children
Three-Year-Old Girl Strip Searched Without Parental Knowledge Parental Rights Foundation & Friends File Vital Court Brief This morning the Parental Rights Foundation filed a friend of the court brief (“amicus brief”) with the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in the case of Doe v. Woodard. Our brief provides the court scholarship…
Read MoreNinth Circuit Court Gets It Right
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit last week ruled in Demaree v. Pederson that there is no “qualified immunity” for investigators who remove children from a home without a warrant or exigent threat of serious physical harm to the child.This is a welcome decision from a court that had not always been…
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