December 9, 2015
By Robert Franklin, Esq, Member, National Board of Directors, National Parents Organization
After a three-year hiatus, America’s most knowledgeable lay authority on child welfare agencies, foster care and related issues is back in the saddle and reporting on the website for the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform. During those three years, Richard Wexler’s been missed. He’s a clear voice of fact-based reason in a policy area too often fraught with emotion and distorted by federal money.
Put simply, Wexler gets it. His take on foster care is solidly based in the science of children’s well-being that demonstrates that, necessary as foster care sometimes is, it’s vastly overused by CPS agencies coast to coast. Usually the best alternative for children, even when there is mild or in some cases even moderate, abuse or neglect, is with their biological parents. That means the best approach for CPS caseworkers is usually to provide services needed by those biological parents. If they’re unemployed, that may mean referring them to job placement or training services. If drug or alcohol abuse is the problem there are programs for that too.
The point being that helping parents provide better for their children is usually more beneficial than simply taking the children into foster care which by itself scars the kids.
Richard Wexler fights for all that and more. His voice is always a breath of fresh air. No movement for parental rights and children’s welfare is complete without his message.
Welcome back, Richard!