Black children are almost twice as likely to experience investigations as white children and are more likely to be separated from their families. Every three minutes a child is removed from their home and placed in the foster system. One in three children in the United States will be part of a child welfare investigation by age 18, as Adaline’s children were.
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I knew I wanted to be a mother and that’s all I ever knew how to do. “This situation has caused me so much pain, anger, and trauma from the separation from my children,” she said. The children remain in the foster system at time of writing, and Adaline is fighting to get them back. One of her sons had to be admitted to a mental health facility for inpatient care. Four of the six children have experienced abuse in the foster system and are coping with serious mental health impacts, Adaline said. Her children, including her infant son, were removed from her care, separated from each other, and placed in foster homes. Adaline said DCFS told her they found bed bugs in a couch and holes in the walls in of her home.ĭays before her case was set to be reviewed, Adaline was informed that a judge had ordered the children be removed from her custody due to the condition of the home and because she rescheduled her son's appointment. During that time, she rescheduled one of Elijah’s follow-up appointments. The birth was complicated because of her spinal conditions, and she had to use a wheelchair and walker for two months. In the meantime, Adaline gave birth to her youngest child. Afraid that her children would be taken from her, Adaline agreed to six months of follow-up with the caseworker, weekly drug testing, and parenting classes, in exchange for keeping her children home with her. She was removed from her own parents’ care as a child and grew up in the foster system. “They stated that my marijuana usage rendered me incapable of providing 24-hour care to my children,” she said.Īdaline knew what was at stake. She tested positive for THC (the active substance in marijuana, and the chemical responsible for most of its psychological effects). “I made the decision to change to medical marijuana, which was better for my health,” she said. Her doctor prescribed Percocet for the pain, but it was damaging her liver and stomach lining. Adaline said these visits were so frightening for her children that her youngest child began screaming every time she saw anyone with a badge.Īdaline was required to take a drug test, a requirement often-and disproportionally-imposed on Black mothers.
A caseworker visited the children’s school and pulled them from class to question them, came to the home unannounced, and randomly strip searched the children, ages 1, 4, 7, 9, and 10, to check their bodies for signs of abuse. The Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) launched an investigation. I trusted them to help him.” Adaline was shocked when she learned that her son’s medical providers reported her to child protective services for suspected abuse, triggering a cascade of state interventions that irreparably harmed her children and their family bond. “The doctors asked me questions, and I told them everything. “I rushed him to the emergency room when he got hurt,” Adaline said. Her 9-year-old son, Elijah, was dancing in the kitchen and slipped on some water, injuring his hip. Her nightmare began on a night like any other. It has been more than two years since Adaline Stephens’ six children were removed from her care and placed in the foster system. Bobbie Butts, advocate, California, April 15, 2022 Black children are almost twice as likely to experience investigations as white children and more likely to be separated from their families. Human Rights Watch and the ACLU found significant racial and socioeconomic disparities in child welfare involvement. The 146-page report, “‘If I Wasn’t Poor, I Wouldn’t Be Unfit’: The Family Separation Crisis in the US Child Welfare System,” documents how conditions of poverty, such as a family’s struggle to pay rent or maintain housing, are misconstrued as neglect, and interpreted as evidence of an inability and lack of fitness to parent. The system’s disproportionate impact on Black and Indigenous families and people living in poverty, and the sheer number of children removed unjustly, make this a national crisis warranting immediate attention and action.
(New York, November 17, 2022) – Child welfare systems in the United States too often treat poverty as the basis for charges of neglect and decisions to remove children from their parents, Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said in a report released today.
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