No good deed goes unpunished
....NJ sues hospital for reporting child welfare concerns.
There’s a very strange case pending in the Superior Court of Camden County, New Jersey.
Attorney General Matt Platkin, who is appointed by the state’s Governor, is suing one of the state’s healthcare systems, Virtua. The suit claims that Virtua’s policy of drug testing all new mothers giving birth at its hospitals discriminates against pregnant women, violates their privacy, and unfairly exposes them to unmerited child abuse investigations by the state’s Department for Children and Families.
The case centers on two women who gave birth at Virtua hospitals and tested positive for opioids – tests the lawsuit claims were false, as the women had only consumed poppy seeds and otherwise had no substance abuse issues. The suit appears to acknowledge that under New Jersey law, hospitals are required to report to the Child Protection and Permanency agency every case in which a “mother had a positive toxicology screen for a controlled substance or metabolite thereof during pregnancy or at the time of delivery.”
The law then requires child protective services to determine whether the report presents an allegation of abuse or, instead, a situation that should be addressed by supportive services as required by a federal law, the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (“CARA”).
Platkin’s lawsuit contends that by making the report, Virtua wrongly forced these women to go through a state child protective services abuse investigation, a process that can take many months, result in child protective services coming to the family’s home, and “involve multiple interviews of the pregnant person or birthing parent, the pregnant person or birthing parent’s other minor children, other family members, and other witnesses.”
Platkin wants Virtua and others to stop testing mothers at birth. Instead, they should ask the mother to voluntarily disclose if she’s been using illegal substances. Because otherwise, child protective services will make these families’ lives miserable.
Here’s the bizarre part. Guess who represents the New Jersey Department of Children and Families, the agency charged with deciding whether the report merits a child protective services investigation or not? Matt Platkin’s Office of the Attorney General.
In other words, the New Jersey Attorney General is attempting to punish a hospital system for doing what the law requires, forcing it to rack up untold attorney fees to defend itself, simply because the Attorney General can’t or won’t make the child protection agency he represents do its job of triaging these mandated reports and determining whether there’s an issue (a drug-exposed child in need of protection) or not (a testing error or simply a family needing support).
And it also seems the Attorney General is violating another statute providing immunity to anyone who, in good faith and with reasonable grounds, reports suspected child abuse.
Why this unusual attack? Unfortunately, it seems to be fashionable, in the name of supporting parents, to suppress reporting of children at risk of abuse and neglect.
How much the situation has changed in less than a decade! In 2016, under President Obama, Congress passed CARA to promote drug screening of new mothers as part of a wider effort to address the growing opioid crisis. Since 2020, however, the tables have turned, and progressives seeking to dismantle the child welfare system have targeted these screenings as discriminatory and racist. Colorado passed a law in 2020 limiting drug testing at delivery. In April of 2024, as the Free Press reported, Mass General in Boston stopped testing mothers at birth as part of its efforts to improve “health equity,” reasoning that “black pregnant people are more likely to be drug tested and to be reported to child welfare systems than white pregnant people.”
Never mind that almost 500,000 babies each year suffer from prenatal drug exposure in the US, or that prenatal exposure creates risks of low birthweight, sudden unexpected infant death, developmental delays in children, and long-term medical and cognitive issues. Also, never mind the fact that this hospital is conducting universal screening for substance-affected children rather than targeting mothers by race or socioeconomic status. For New Jersey’s Attorney General, it appears that doing the popular thing trumps child protection.
In other news:
Judge Jack removed from the Texas child welfare litigation by the 5th Circuit.
The Free Press follows up on an issue we highlighted some months ago: Trafficking of children who are crossing the border. Having spent many years advocating for these young people, I hate to see them abandoned and their plight ignored.
Good piece from Sharon McDaniel on “true” kinship care.
Minnesota: Children incompetent to stand trial for delinquency issues are stuck in limbo.
In Georgia, homelessness too often leads to foster care.
Good report from the American Enterprise Institute on how states too often hide behind confidentiality in child abuse fatalities when federal law requires transparency.
Finally, there’s a new book out by Debbie Ausburn and yours truly, and I think you’ll find it a great resource for any organization working with children and youth. Please consider ordering a copy
Thank you for publishing the unpopular truth.