Family Rights and Child Abuse News

Child Welfare System Must Grow Up

by Wendy McElroy

The California child welfare system is such a disaster that even the state's Department of Social Services admits families are aggressively torn apart and children unnecessarily placed in foster care.

In L.A. County alone, more than 160,000 children "came into contact" with Child Welfare in 2002; 30,000 are in foster homes -- only one form of foster care.

Fox News

October 14, 2003

Davis Signs Away Parental Rights Just Before Election

Just before the election, Governor Gray Davis signed a bill into law (SB71), which will allow public schools and teachers to question children at any age about their parents and family, or about personal sexual issues, without parental consent.

Before SB71, public schools were required by state law to obtain prior written parental consent before any student could be given or posed any questions regarding sex, family life, morality or religion. The new California law will now only require written notice, which may be placed in a stack of other materials at the beginning of the school year. Fortunately for parents in California, a federal statute sponsored by President Bush, the No Child Left Behind bill, will still put the requirement of prior written consent on all public schools that receive federal money.

Pacific Justice Institute

October 19, 2003

Vegetarian Families and the Courts

by Charles R. Attwood, M.D., F.A.A.P.

Monea was rarely sick, but had been diagnosed with development problems since birth.

Social workers from the California Department of Children's Services (DCS) arrived at the McBride School for handicapped children in Los Angeles shortly before noon on September 20, 1995. They took five-year-old Monea Hromadko from her classroom to nearby Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, according to her father, without his knowledge. Peter Hromadko, a single parent, said he was shocked when he learned later that evening that she would not be coming home; the state was taking his daughter from him because he and Monea were vegetarians.

Vegsource.com

October 28, 2003

Dysfunctional families 'at root' of poor discipline

by Jenny Rees

POOR parenting skills, dysfunctional families and television have been named by teachers as the three most significant factors in the decline of pupil behaviour in schools.

Research for NASUWT reveals teachers in both primary and secondary schools believe some parents need classes in how to tackle their children's bad behaviour. <br><br>Teachers also suggest that dysfunctional family life causes indiscipline, as well as other difficulties, in children and that school provides the only stable place for many young people.

icWales (UK)

October 29, 2003

Social work changes in wake of baby death

by Andrew Denholm and James Doherty

MINISTERS unveiled plans yesterday to speed up improvements to Scotland's child-protection services following the death of 11-week-old Caleb Ness

The announcement came on the day Audit Scotland, the public spending watchdog, published a damning report into efforts to cut rates of re-offending. It found that 15 per cent of youngsters weren't getting the services which children's hearings had recommended for them.

The Scotsman

November 6, 2003