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Child Welfare Services

Susan Horton, a White woman wearing a black tank top, arranges her children’s toys on top of a table.
Feature September 9
She Ate a Poppy Seed Salad Just Before Giving Birth. Then They Took Her Baby Away.
Hospitals use drug tests that return false positives from poppy seed bagels, decongestants and Zantac. Yet newborns are being taken from parents based on the results.
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News Inside July 28, 2023
Can’t Stop. Won’t Stop.
With renewed purpose, Issue 14 of News Inside goes the extra yard to deliver information behind bars.
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A White woman with wavy blonde hair stands on her porch at dusk.
News July 22, 2022
Decades After Leaving Foster Care, She Learned She Was Owed Benefits. Where Did The Money Go?
After reading a Marshall Project/NPR investigation, former foster youth are asking what happened to their benefits — and the government isn’t helping.
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Feature May 17, 2021
Foster Care Agencies Take Millions of Dollars Owed to Kids. Most Children Have No Idea.
The majority of states obtain money intended for foster children with disabilities or a deceased parent without telling them, The Marshall Project and NPR found.
By with Joseph Shapiro, NPR
News May 17, 2021
These States Take Money Meant for Foster Children
Our reporting shows that in at least 49 states, plus Washington, D.C., foster care officials obtain federal benefits intended for children in their care.
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M., 23, stands in the room she has prepared for her daughter at her home in Massachusetts in March of 2021. Since her newborn daughter was placed in foster care, M. has been forced to bond with her primarily through Zoom.
Coronavirus April 14, 2021
These Parents Had to Bond With Their Babies Over Zoom — or Lose Them Forever
During the pandemic, video chats replaced in-person visits between parents and their children placed in foster care. The effects could linger for years.
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Due to school closures and stay-at-home orders, there have been fewer “eyes on children” to report on abuse happening to kids.
Coronavirus June 15, 2020
Is Child Abuse Really Rising During The Pandemic?
Amid speculation of a spike in abuse, advocates worry that families of color will be policed even more.
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A girl in the foster care system at an emergency children’s shelter in West Virginia in 2019.
Coronavirus March 24, 2020
Coronavirus Leaves Foster Children With Nowhere to Go
New placements, family visits and child-abuse investigations falter across the country.
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A mother with her son in South Carolina in January. He was taken from her and placed in foster care only to be returned weeks later.
Feature February 11, 2020
The Hidden Trauma of “Short Stays” in Foster Care
Every year, thousands of children are removed from their homes by officials who fear for their safety—only to be returned within days. It “felt like being kidnapped,” one said.
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David Dunbar of the Bronx has been refused custody of his 16-year-old daughter, Destiny, in part because he was not married to her mother.
News September 25, 2019
He Didn’t Abuse His Daughter. The State Took Her Anyway.
An unwed father hopes his case will change the way courts decide what it means to be a parent.
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