Pound Pup Legacy

from: www.nccpr.org

Successful Alternatives to Taking Children from their Parents

At the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform, we often are asked what can be done to prevent the trauma of foster care by safely keeping children with their own families.  There are many options, and we’ve listed some below.  None of the alternatives described below will work in every case or should be tried in every case.  Contrary to the way advocates of placement prevention often are stereotyped, we do not believe in “family preservation at all costs” or that “every family can be saved.”  But these alternatives can keep many children now needlessly taken from their parents safely in their own homes.  Similarly, even communities that have turned their child welfare systems into national models still have serious problems, and often much progress still needs to be made.  All of the things that go wrong in the worst child welfare systems also go wrong in the best – but they go wrong less often.