Lifting the Veil

Updated November 10, 2012.

A Critical Look at the Foster Care System

How great is the need for foster care? How safe are the services provided? What are the trends for the future of these children?

A Critical Look at the Child Welfare System

Investigative techniques, assessment tools, caseworker turnover, reunification plans, falsification of records, caseworker training, and other issues are explored.

SPECIAL REPORTS

Efforts at Reform: 2010 - Where Are We Today?
Added May 22, 2010.

Psychotropic Medication in Foster Care: A Bibliography

Little Angel Bird: Reflections on a Young Girl's Death in Alberta
The untimely death of a 21-month-old girl in foster care in Alberta is examined amidst the backdrop of the globalization of the child protection industry. An analysis of the assimilation era, in which Native and Aboriginal peoples were scooped up over the course of decades - ostensibly to serve their best interests. The role of the Child Welfare League of America in promulgating the policies leading to the forced removal of Native children from their homes is examined in a global-historical context.
Added June 15, 2010.

Efforts at Reform
For decades, child advocates have tried legislative measures, litigation, administrative restructuring, as well as a variety of other methods aimed at reforming public child welfare agencies. How effective have these strategies been at altering daily practice? The first article in a planned series explores over three decades of reform efforts in the state of Tennessee.

Child Abuse Reporting
How many of the over three million reports received annually by child welfare agencies are passed on for investigation? How is the number of reports used to manipulate public perception? How many reports actually involve allegations of severe abuse?

Reasonable Efforts
What problems was Public Law 96-272, the "reasonable efforts requirement," intended to address? Did the law enjoy any measure of success? Are the states in compliance with the law? Critics charge the law suffered from a lack of federal leadership, and that it was destined for failure.

Close Up: The Petro Audits
Luxury car leases, tickets to sporting events, country club memberships, a cruise, limousine services, personal loans, and political contributions. All at taxpayer expense, and all from money intended to be used for children in foster care.

Under Siege: The Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978
An alarmingly high percentage of Native American families are broken up by the removal of their children from them by nontribal public and private agencies. An introduction to The Indian Child Welfare Act. Is it working as intended?

The Lost Children
Children missing from foster care across the nation. Gone without a trace, they are among America's disposable children.

Eye on Kansas
Critics charge that privatization of foster care in the state of Kansas falls far short of the success that it was promised to be.

The Children: Casualties in America's War on Child Abuse
Special Reports including: Elisa Izquierdo, Krystal Scurry, Keron Owens, Eli Creekmore, Michelle Hampton, Selena Hill.

PUBLISHED WRITINGS

A Reply to Andrew Vachss' "A Hard Look at How We Treat Children"
Rick Thoma replies to Andrew Vachss' March 29, 1998, article in Parade Magazine. This article appeared in the Summer 1998 edition of Vindicator, the journal of the Ohio Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

If You Lived Here, You'd be Home Now: The Business of Foster Care.
Article published in the January 1999 edition of the peer-reviewed journal Issues in Child Abuse Accusations.

Several of the articles that appear on Lifting the Veil have also been published in a variety of formats, such as newsletters, as well as having been incorporated as teaching and training curricula.

RESEARCH DATABASES

Journal Articles Database
A collection of journal articles, a majority of which are peer-reviewed. Topics include foster care, outcomes, emancipation, child abuse reporting, risk assessment, investigations, and more. The database is powered by Delicious bookmarks.

U.S. Supreme Court Caselaw
A comprehensive collection of Supreme Court cases dealing with the issues of parental rights, liberties and obligations.

Foster Care and Child Welfare Related Testimony
A growing database of Congressional and other testimony by child advocates and industry leaders, including Douglas Besharov, Mark Soler, George Miller, Marcia Robinson Lowry, Richard Wexler and others.

Studies, Surveys and Audits
A continuously updated database of reports on Foster Care, Child Welfare, Juvenile Justice, Family Preservation and more. Included are studies, surveys, performance audits, and grand jury reports.

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Last updated November 10, 2012.