It’s easy enough to see how people can leap to the conclusion that the deaths of children “known to the system” must be the result of “family preservation” or the federal law requiring agencies to make “reasonable efforts” to keep families together.
After all, the cases seem so obvious — especially in hindsight. Often they were not the
“tough calls.” And almost everyone in the system has a vested interest in promoting the idea that it was the fault of a law or a policy over which they have no control. But the real reasons children “known to the system” die are very different. And those reasons are well within the control of many of those who point the finger at family preservation.
When children known to the system die, it is usually because the system is overwhelmed with children who don’t need to be in foster care at all.
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