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24 Wm. & Mary Bill Rts. J. 725 (2015-2016)
Thoughts on the Liberal Dilemma in Child Welfare Reform

handle is hein.journals/wmbrts24 and id is 755 raw text is: THOUGHTS ON THE LIBERAL DILEMMA IN CHILD WELFARE REFORM Elizabeth Bartholet* INTRODUCTION ................................................. 725 I. ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE DILEMMA: THE THREE MOST SIGNIFICANT CHILD WELFARE REFORM MOVEMENTS OF RECENT DECADES ............. 727 A. Intensive Family Preservation Services (IFPS) .................. 727 B. Racial Disproportionality .................................. 728 C. Differential Response ..................................... 729 II. DIRECTIONS FOR TRUE CHILD WELFARE REFORM ................... 732 INTRODUCTION Yes, the Liberal Dilemma is a problem in child welfare-a central problem. My own definition of the liberal dilemma is as follows. The dominant group in the child welfare area defining policy and policy reform is and has been for the past several decades a self-styled liberal group. There are others who see themselves as liberal, including myself, who take different positions from this group. But the domi- nant liberal group has had a silencing impact on many liberals who fear being labeled as right-wing conservatives simply because they disagree. This can make it seem as if the liberal position is the dominant group position. The dilemma or problem has to do with the nature of the policy the liberal group promotes. The policy focus is not on children, as should be the case in the child wel- fare area. In theory, all agree that children's best interests should be the guiding principle, or at least a major guiding principle. Instead, the policy focus is on adults and their welfare.' While the dominant liberal group claims to care about child interests, its real goal appears to be to serve the interests of poor adults and to alleviate the * Professor of Law and Faculty Director, Child Advocacy Program, Harvard Law School. This Article is a revised version of a talk given at William & Mary Law School's 2015 Sym- posium, The LiberalDilemma in Child Welfare Reform, March 20,2015. It is based in significant part on my article, Differential Response: A Dangerous Experiment in Child Welfare, 42 FLA. ST. U. L. REV. 573 (2015). Documentation for the various factual and other claims made here is contained in the footnotes to that article. This, along with my other work on child welfare, appears on http://www.law.harvard.edu/faculty/bartholet/pubs.php [http://perma.cc /7FWW-G3GL]. 1 See generally ELIZABETH BARTHOLET, NOBODY'S CHILDREN: ABUSE AND NEGLECT, FOSTER DRIFT, AND THE ADOPTION ALTERNATIVE (1999) [hereinafter BARTHOLET, NOBODY'S CHILDREN] (discussing the undue emphasis on parents' rights in child welfare law and policy).