by Dorothy Roberts

About the author: Dorothy Roberts is the author of Shattered Bonds: The Color of Child Welfare.

It is often said that American child welfare policy operates like a pendulum. It swings between two main objectives: keeping troubled families together on one end, and protecting children from parental harm on the other. In recent years the pendulum of child welfare philosophy has swung decisively away from preserving families. State child protection officials responded to fatal child abuse cases, like that of Elisa Izquierdo in 1995, by escalating removal of at-risk children from their homes. And in 1997, Congress passed the Adoption and Safe Families Act that encourages state agencies to “free” children in foster care for adoption by terminating their parents’ rights. The emphasis on adoption to cure the ills of the foster care system mirrors...