Patrick Murphy won. So why isn’t he smiling?
The Cook County public guardian has been railing for years against a child-welfare system that took “family reunification” as its mantra. Often, reunification has meant keeping abusive parents and abused children together even when there was a very good chance the parent would once again bite, kick, burn or molest the children.
Murphy has gathered his thoughts into a new book, “Wasted: The Plight of America’s Unwanted Children.” It is classic Murphy, which means it is graphic and blunt and unpretty. Murphy’s indictment of the system can be distilled to three sentences:
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“The child-welfare system has failed children because it refuses to distinguish between parents who are ill-equipped to raise their children adequately without help, and parents who are too immature or thuggish to raise children even with help. To the system, all parents are victims, irrespective of their crimes or potential for reform. And the parent, not the child, is the client.”
The irony is that, just as Murphy has finally put his indictment into print, the child welfare system has been convicted and sentenced by Congress and the Illinois General Assembly.
Last month, President Clinton signed the Adoption and Safe Families Act, which does nothing short of reverse 17 years of misguided child welfare policy.
Since 1980, federal law has required the states to make “reasonable efforts” to keep children with their parents, and has financially rewarded the child-welfare agencies for parking kids forever in foster care.
By now, most people understand what happened: A crack epidemic, single-parent families, and zealous interpretation of the law created a foster-child population that is bigger than Wyoming. Some half a million abused and neglected kids are in foster care. And even with half a million kids in foster care, hundreds of kids are killed each year by abusive adults.
Congress finally woke up, started paying attention and said, “No more.”
The new law says if a child has been abandoned or tortured or regularly abused, forget “reasonable efforts” and find the kid a new home. It says if a kid has been in foster care for 15 out of 22 months, the states should take away the parents’ rights and start the route to adoption. Congress, which understands money better than anything, has created a bounty system. When a state increases the number of kids who are adopted, the state will collect $4,000 per kid.
This year, the Illinois legislature also said, “No more.” New state law will shorten the time it takes to move abused and neglected children toward adoption.
The state and federal laws serve notice on parents that they have to shape up quickly if they want their kids.
On paper, at least, this is a revolution in child welfare. The law will still allow social workers to try to mend families. But the law will no longer let kids languish forever in foster care while social workers treat their misfit parents as victims. This is what those of us who have been complaining about the system have been looking for.
Patrick Murphy testified twice before the House committee that drafted the federal adoption bill. He worked closely with Gov. Jim Edgar’s office in writing the state law.
So why isn’t he crowing? Because he knows that the fix isn’t as easy as just writing a law.
“I hate to be the doomsayer always,” Murphy told me. “The federal act is a great act. I just wish it had left a little more wiggle room. My concern is the pendulum in 1980 was swung over to family preservation, now it’s swinging way back over. These bureaucrats are not geniuses. It’s a good idea to send the message out that we can’t give these parents forever. But we have to be very careful in how we do it.”
Murphy raises a sobering point. If the government takes away one set of parents, but doesn’t find new parents to take their place, where does that leave the child? That’s a warning for those of us who won. We got what we wanted. Now, we have to make sure there aren’t any casualties from the victory.
The news has been good at the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. It is not the same place it was five years ago. For starters, the number of DCFS adoptions has tripled in that time. Director Jess McDonald has been doing for DCFS what Paul Vallas has been doing for the Chicago Public Schools.
But all of you who think government alone will fix the problem of child abuse, raise your hand.
Ah, now I have a request for everybody who didn’t move a muscle.
Do something yourself for children. Write a check to the baiduhai Holiday Fund. I give to the fund because it helps kids who are homeless, hungry and disabled. But the greatest reason why I give is that the fund helps to prevent child abuse.
Have an interest in kids? Make it count. Use the coupon to donate to the Holiday Fund. Oh, and take a glance at Murphy’s book, which goes for $22.50.
But if you only have $22.50 to spare, give it to the Holiday Fund. I’ll loan you my copy of the book.
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