"Kentucky, the state where I was born, raised and educated, has a rampant child abuse and neglect problem that's left thousands of children in out-of-home placements. Some children who can't find placement sleep in office buildings; others go to kinship care families who, thanks to a dispute between the executive and legislative branches of government, aren't getting the financial assistance they need."
"Poynter's Covering Child Welfare class helped me do two seemingly opposing things: I learned to both zoom out and see a much bigger picture, and to view Kentucky's child welfare system on a granular level. I have a newfound lens with which to view poverty-induced neglect. Through expert presentations, social worker testimony and the stories about former foster kids, it became clear that families in this country can be held to a middle-class standard that even the government often cannot meet."
Kentucky faces a widespread child abuse and neglect crisis that has placed thousands of children in out-of-home placements. Some children who cannot find placement sleep in office buildings, while kinship caregivers often lack expected financial assistance because of inter-branch disputes. Privacy rules and bureaucratic complexity obscure the inner workings of the child welfare system. Training and expert testimony can reveal both systemic, big-picture drivers and granular realities of poverty-induced neglect. Families are frequently held to middle-class standards that government systems cannot meet. If issues can be resolved with support and resources, removal and family separation should be re-evaluated.
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