As a guardian ad-Litem, I have seen government agencies more responsive to abused animals than abused children.
Among the 24 industrialized nations, the U.S. stands out with no positive public federal policy for children.
The only Child Protection policy in America is its Imminent Harm Doctrine, allowing courts to remove children whose lives are endangered by their parents. CP systems in the U.S. are under resourced, poorly coordinated, with no meaningful studies or outcome based measurements to track success or failure.
Absent coordinated positive public policy for the care of children, America is now at the confluence of misaligned and mistaken public policies that are overwhelming its schools, health and mental health services, child protection services, juvenile justice services, and criminal justice systems.
Failing schools, unsafe communities, and absurdly high rates of incarceration are just the tip of the iceberg.
Many Americans see the tip of this iceberg and assume that they understand the deeper problem, which they will fix by lowering taxes, criticizing civil servants, harsher sentencing, limiting juvenile or criminal justice rehabilitation, and move towards privatizing prisons.
What people are not seeing, and what undermines our civil society, is the correlation between healthy children and healthy citizens. We are ignoring an explosion of traumatized children with serious mental health issues, unable to cope with school & work, or get by without intervention or services
Dr. Bruce Perry gives credible argument with his research that within the next few generations, 25% of Americans will be special needs people.
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