[nyay nyay]

After reading this article, I think most social service and child welfare workers try their best to meet the needs of children and their families. I believe children and parents deserve to be together as families. However, if there is any case that could cause harm to children, whether children are abused physically, sexually and emotionally, or neglected either by their biological parents or caregivers, child welfare workers have a right to determine whether the child is to be removed or placed in foster care in order to be safe. Child welfare workers enter the lives of children and families because they have the best interests of children – to be safe, to grow up healthy and to live happily.
At some point, federal laws passed in the United States that focus on the needs of children and families. Still, even after federal laws have passed, many children nowadays are still struggling in their lives. If we look closely and pay close attention to our societies, we still see there are teens and young adults who are homeless.

[Mindy Perez]

For this thread, I believe it is important to note that the government’s main focus is a safe and stable family. However, amendments to the law are constantly needed because laws need to be and are constantly under review. Often times, parties are left out of the equation when it comes to law and I feel this is mostly due to the fact that not all problems are visible or can be addressed in the same manner. For instance, the social security act did not include provisions that protected children in foster care from sex trafficking, even though the goal of the act was safety for children. This is why the Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act was enacted on September 19, 2014. The overlying purpose of this act was to address the sex trafficking of children within the foster care system and provide a parent standard on activities children can engage in. I personally feel this act needed to do more in the way of keeping up with what children are doing and exposed to. Keep in mind that this bill is coming into place 17 years AFTER the Adoption and Safe Families Act was enacted on November 19th 1997, which included a major provision regarding termination of parental rights for children in the foster care system. There has long been a push for safety and stability. But, the truth is, there are also so many gaps and not a lot of forward thinking occurring in foreseen problem solving area. That is just in regards to child safety and stability as well as the lack-there-of i.e. sex trafficking in the foster care system. However, I believe it is better late than never to address the ongoing and underlying issues.