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Hidden foster care in the news.

October 21, 2024

Increase Kinship Care, but not Through Diversion

The reliance on relatives and other kin by child welfare systems in the United States has grown exponentially in the past 10 years. This is cause for celebration, but not when it’s done in ways that are unjust to everyone involved.

Sharon McDaniel

The Imprint

October 8, 2024

Federal Lawmakers Want to Track ‘Hidden Foster Care’

Legislation now before Congress seeks better accounting of “hidden foster care” — a widespread but poorly regulated practice relied upon by child welfare agencies to shuffle kids out of their parents’ homes without court oversight.

Sara Tiano & Bria Suggs

The Imprint

August 20, 2024

Illinois Falsely Accused These Parents of Abusing Their Baby—and Now Won't Tell Them Who Actually Did It

The story of the Brucker family in Illinois. "I never thought that this was even humanly possible," says Sabra Brucker.

Lenore Skenazy

Reason.com

May 24, 2024

SC family says Dept. of Social Services forced their child into ‘the hands of a monster’

South Carolina officials responsible for the welfare of vulnerable children misled a family when they placed a teenage girl in the home of a Midlands photographer who later plied her with drugs, recorded her on hidden cameras and encouraged her to perform sex acts, according to two lawsuits and statements made in court.

Ted Clifford

The State

November 14, 2023

A Law Clinic Model for Preventive Legal Advocacy

The term “preventive legal advocacy” encompasses many different programs and models across the country, all doing impactful work. The success of these
programs caught the attention of Wisconsin’s Department of Children and Families and Children’s Court Improvement Project, which sought to establish a
preventive legal advocacy program in Wisconsin. The result was the Family Legal Advocacy and Supports Clinic (FLASC), a multidisciplinary legal clinic that
serves both the community and students.

Cary Bloodworth

American Bar Association

September 13, 2023

Number of kids in Missouri foster care drop, though officials admit challenges persist

Department of Social Services leadership testified at a House Children and Families committee hearing Tuesday about issues facing the state’s child welfare agency

Clara Bates

Missouri Independent

August 10, 2023

NJ Court Takes Steps to Protect Domestic Violence Victims, Closes Child Protective Services Reporting Loophole

Could calling child protective services on another individual for abuse and neglect be considered harassment? This question was answered in a recent domestic violence trial in New Jersey when defense attorneys argued that it could not, legally, be harassment because anyone who calls the Division of Child Protection and Permanency (DCPP) to report abuse or neglect are legally “immune” from liability. In the published opinion, the trial judge emphatically rejected the “absurd” result, which would have resulted in a “weaponization” of DCPP.

Sean Gaynor

JD Supra

August 1, 2023

Shadow Foster Care

Children and caregivers in a 'hidden' system miss out on benefits and support

Amanda Robert

ABA Journal

June 26, 2023

The Supreme Court’s Indian Child Welfare Decision Neglected One Big Thing

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court issued its much-anticipated decision in Haaland v. Brackeen, in which plaintiffs challenged the constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act. Thankfully, in a 7–2 majority decision, the court roundly rejected the plaintiffs’ arguments, leaving ICWA and Congress’ power to regulate in this area intact.

Stephanie K. Glaberson

The Slate

May 27, 2023

How a baby, now 4 months old, was left without a name

She was born at a D.C. hospital, and for reasons that are heartbreaking, complicated and frustrating, she still doesn’t have a birth certificate

Theresa Vargas

The Washington Post

April 18, 2023

New Protections in New Mexico for Hidden Foster Care Cases

Lawmakers in New Mexico passed a bill to ensure foster care subsidies are available for kinship guardians taking in children under a voluntary placement agreement, and providing legal counsel for parents before they agree to these voluntary custody arrangements. The subsidies would last for the duration of the placement.

Sara Tiano

The Imprint

March 14, 2023

Texas Lawmaker’s Proposal Aims to Regulate ‘Hidden Foster Care’

For a second time in the past year, Texas lawmakers are considering placing guardrails on a common but little-discussed social work practice known as “hidden foster care” that affects thousands of state residents a year.

Annie Sciacca

The Imprint

March 4, 2023

D.C.’s hidden foster care practice is harming families, advocates warn

At the center of the issue — and six federal lawsuits — are children who have already been failed by adults in their lives

Theresa Vargas

Washington Post

July 7, 2022

How Hidden Foster Care Harms Children and Parents of Color

I felt an icy cold panic in the core of my being when my ahijada’s (goddaughter’s) mother called and explained that Child Protection Services (CPS) was threatening to put her and her sister in foster care if I didn’t take them in. The only reasonable answer I could give was “Absolutely, yes. They can come here.”

Aubrey Edwards-Luce

The Imprint

April 6, 2022

Lawsuit Alleges New York Created ‘Extremely Harmful’ Shadow Foster Care System

Attorneys for kids in Family Court have sued New York’s state child welfare agency, arguing that recently approved regulations allow for a “shadow” foster care system that could be “extremely harmful” to vulnerable children and families. The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Rensselaer County Supreme Court, centers on rules the Office of Children and Family Services finalized in December, naming the state agency and its commissioner as defendants.

Michael Fitzgerald

The Imprint

December 1, 2021

“They Took Us Away From Each Other”: Lost Inside America’s Shadow Foster System

Across the country, an unregulated system is severing parents from children, who often end up abandoned by the agencies that are supposed to protect them.

Lizzie Presser

ProPublica

December 1, 2021

How ‘Shadow’ Foster Care Is Tearing Families Apart

Across the country, an unregulated system is severing parents from children, who often end up abandoned by the agencies that are supposed to protect them.

Lizzie Presser

New York Times

October 18, 2021

Every year, children are diverted away from foster care and placed with relatives. Nobody knows what happens next.

There is an inherent conundrum built into child welfare. Social workers are trying to protect kids, but separating them from their parents is traumatizing, even if it’s for their own safety.

And reams of research shows that, if they have to be removed from their homes, children do best when they’re placed with family members.

So, for more than a decade, Virginia has been pushing to do just that: Divert the kids away from the system entirely by identifying relatives who can take custody if they’re unsafe in their homes.

The trouble is, nobody knows what happens next.

Part 2 of 2

Katie O'Connor

Virginia Mercury

October 4, 2021

Kinship Caregivers in D.C. Say Child Welfare Agency Owes Foster Payments

Three years ago, a Washington, D.C., woman received a distressed call with an urgent request: Her sister was being admitted to a psychiatric hospital and needed help caring for her then-5-year-old daughter. Could she take her in?

Morgan Baskin

The Imprint

August 4, 2021

Texas Lawmaker Commits to Restricting and Tracking Hidden Foster Care

A special session bill before the feuding Texas Legislature takes aim at a practice widely referred to as “hidden foster care” — the separation of children from their parents by child welfare agencies, outside of the watchful eye of the courts.

Sara Tiano

The Imprint

July 18, 2021

Are There Way More Kids in Foster Care Than We Think?

Podcast discussing plans for rethinking child welfare, universal cell phone coverage for California foster youth, and another big experiment planned for the “colorblind” approach to foster care removal decisions featuring Josh Gupta-Kagan.

PODCAST

The Imprint Weekly

December 21, 2020

Hidden Foster Care: All Of The Responsibility, None Of The Resources

Outside of the traditional foster care system exists a shadow system of potentially hundreds of thousands of children removed by CPS to their relatives or family friends—without a court case, monetary support, or due process.

Roxanna Asgarian

The Appeal

December 21, 2020

How the Biden Administration Can Address Hidden Foster Care

The Biden administration will inherit a foster care system in which states report removing more than 200,000 children from their families every year.

The real number is far higher, thanks to a practice
that I call “hidden foster care.” This largely
unregulated practice is long overdue for federal
attention and action.

Josh Gupta-Kagan

The Imprint

June 17, 2020

Faith-Based Movement to ‘Host’ Children of Struggling Families Hits Opposition in New York

In the summer of 2012, Corisma Gillespie hit a crisis point. Pregnant with her second child, the 20-year-old from the west side of Chicago had lost her job at McDonald’s. Her car was impounded, and she was about to become homeless. Desperate to provide for her children, she asked herself: “How can I do this?”

Michael Fitzgerald

The Imprint

June 2, 2019

‘They forgot about us:’ Thousands of families are doing the same work as foster parents in Virginia, without the support

On a June day in 2011, Ray Richardson was at work when he got a call from his daughter and was given a choice: Either his granddaughter, 7-year-old Lilia, would be staying with Richardson and his wife, or she was going into foster care.

“Period. Point blank,” Richardson recalled.

Part 1 of 2

Katie O'Connor

Virginia Mercury

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The Coalition to End Hidden Foster is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice or resources. We recommend consulting with a licensed attorney for legal assistance in child welfare cases.

© 2025 Coalition to End Hidden Foster Care

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