THE INTERGENERATIONAL EFFECTS OF THE CHILD WELFARE SYSTEM AND THE LEGAL OBLIGATION TO RECTIFY THEM
Author: Eliana Schachter, J.D. & Elizabeth Kroll, M.A.
The American Association of Pediatrics asserted that separating a child from her family “can cause irreparable harm, disrupting a child’s brain architecture and affecting his or her short- and long-term health. This type of prolonged exposure to serious stress—known as toxic stress—can carry lifelong consequences for children.” Further, of the children who experience foster care, about forty percent of their mothers have a personal history of child welfare involvement. The current child welfare system is creating a destructive cycle where children are removed from their parents and placed in foster care, allegedly to save them from abuse or neglect. However, the indirect abuse and neglect that the system itself can cause are long-lasting and far-reaching; not only to the child that was in the system but potentially to the children of that child. While the assertions and suggestions in this article apply to all current and former foster youth, there is a heightened need to address the harms that manifest in foster alumni as parents because of the probability that those harms will impact a second generation.