There are great debates going on these days as to whether our child protection and welfare system is inherently racist. This week, the National Association of Counsel for Children published in its Guardian newsletter the first of a three-part series on “The Weaponization of Whiteness in Child Welfare.” The authors argue that attachment theory is often “weaponized” by the child welfare system to prevent children of color from returning to their homes of origin.
That premise is misplaced. In truth, attachment theory is one of the best arguments for the child’s right to family integrity. As Professor Margaret Somerville has noted, children have a biological need to be raised by their own parents and family.1 Attachment theory proposes that children have a natural tendency and a deep need to attach to one or more primary caregivers, and the earlier and more solid that attachment is, the better the child’s prospects for psychological and emotional health. As the Connecticut Supreme Court has stated:
The "right to family integrity . . . encompasses the reciprocal rights of both [the] parent and [the] children . . . the interest of the parent in the companionship, care, custody and management of his or her children . . . and of the children in not being dislocated from the emotional attachments that derive from the intimacy of daily association . . . with the parent . . . ." In other words, parents and children share a compelling interest in remaining together as a family unit.” (Internal Cits omitted) In re Zakai F., 336 Conn. 272, 291, 255 A.3d 767, 778 (2020)
Given such a strong argument for family togetherness, it makes little sense to cast aside as “inherently racist” the valuable argument that attachment theory provides for the right to family integrity.
In other news:
A lawsuit in Pennsylvania seeks to get rid of the State’s Child Abuse Registry. It’s unfair to many individuals and doesn’t really enhance protection of children.
High turnover and low morale is plaguing Missouri’s child welfare system.
South Carolina is expanding assistance for fictive kin caregivers.
A Legislative Oversight Committee in Maine is investigating the state’s handling of several child deaths, subpoenaing records from the agency.
Here’s a report from the Nebraska Child Welfare ombudsman.
Somerville, Children’s Human Rights to Natural Biological Origins and Family Structure” (March 2011) 23 (1) Bioethics Research Notes 1.