Citation

Raz M, Edwards F. Soc. Work 2023; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, National Association of Social Workers)

DOI

10.1093/sw/swad047

PMID

37990950

Abstract

The framework of reproductive justice recognizes the right to parent one's children in a healthy and safe environment. Children have a right to be raised by their families and to enjoy profound connections with their network of kin. In some situations, the state steps in and terminates these relations (Ross & Solinger, 2017). Terminations of parental rights were generally rare until the late 1990s. In fiscal year 1990, 12 percent of children in foster care had experienced termination of parental rights (TPR), a statistic that had remained relatively stable in the preceding decade (Robinson, 1995). These numbers rose throughout the 1990s, and in 1997, the year federal legislation passed, the number was recorded at 37,000 (White Stack, 2005), or 7 percent of children in foster care (second author's calculation using foster care caseload data from Roehrkasse, 2021). The most recent data available (2021) record 65,000 children with full TPR in foster care, or 17 percent of children in foster care (U.S. Children's Bureau, 2022). These changes have a complex history.

Language: en