Predatory US Child Welfare: Profiting from Family Destruction
Dawn Chappel – Writer, Newsbreak
The U.S. child welfare system faces significant criticism for its structure that appears to prioritize child removal and adoption over family preservation, perpetuating cycles of poverty and disproportionately affecting marginalized communities. This system is largely funded through Title IV-E of the Social Security Act, which provides billions for foster care and adoption but lacks reimbursement for family preservation programs.
Current funding structures allocate substantially more resources to foster care and adoption than to family reunification efforts. States receive financial incentives for increasing adoptions and legal guardianships of foster children, with bonuses ranging from $4,000 to $6,000 per adoption, and an additional $2,000 for children classified as “special needs”. This creates a perverse incentive where states may be financially motivated to place children in foster care rather than provide services to keep families together.
Approximately 50% of families referred to child welfare were receiving welfare assistance at the time of referral. The system often conflates poverty-related challenges with parental inadequacy, failing to address underlying economic needs34. Neglect, cited in about 63% of child welfare cases, is overwhelmingly tied to poverty. This approach disproportionately affects families of color, perpetuating systemic disadvantages.
The child welfare system disproportionately impacts Black and Native communities, stemming from historical patterns of family separation and continuing through modern policies that disadvantage marginalized groups. This disparity is evident at every stage of involvement, with Black children almost twice as likely to experience investigations as white children.
The Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) mandates states to file for termination of parental rights after a child has been in foster care for 15 of the past 22 months. This timeline often disregards a family’s progress toward reunification, further enabling the push for adoption. Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funds, originally intended to assist struggling families, are often redirected to support foster care, Child Protective Services investigations, and adoption subsidies in many states. This reallocation exacerbates the conditions that place families under CPS scrutiny.
The child welfare system has elements of a profit-driven industry. Private adoption agencies often charge substantial fees per adoption, sometimes targeting low-income families and vulnerable populations. Limited oversight allows these agencies to operate with minimal checks, potentially fostering opportunities for corruption and abuse.
For more information, see:
The Predatory System – Overhauling the U S’s Child Welfare System
The US Child Welfare System Harms Families
If I wasn’t Poor I Wouldn’t Be Unfit -Family Separation Crisis in the U S
