Debate on Family Preservation

"In the starkest terms, a child welfare worker who suspects a child is being neglected or abused by a parent has two choices, both fraught with risk.The worker can remove the child from the family — a traumatic act with lasting consequences — and turn to foster care, where the odds of the child's being mistreated are significant. Or the worker can leave the child with an impoverished or troubled family and provide support in the form of housekeeping help or drug treatment, and then visit frequently to monitor progress. Though debate has raged for decades about whether either option really keeps children safer, New York City started in 1999 to explicitly lean toward the second choice, "family preservation," as the effort is known, in all but cases where harm to the child was thought to be imminent." By Leslie Kaufman, New York Times Link to Article (last visited 2-5-06 NVS)