“How a scandal-plagued health care giant profits off a failing child welfare system.”
foster care
Posted inEditor's Pick
Pregnant, Homeless and Living in a Tent: Meet Mckenzie
In 2018, reporter Gale Holland, photographer Christina House, and videographer Claire Hannah Collins spent time with young unhoused people in an encampment above the Hollywood Freeway. Their Hollywood’s Finest series for the Los Angeles Times tells the stories of three women, including Mckenzie Trahan, a young woman who has been in and out of foster […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
Extraordinary Circumstances
Kenneth Watkins’s son, Kenny, was 6 days old when he was taken away by ACS, New York City’s child-welfare agency. Kenny was then placed with an affluent foster family. To regain custody, Watkins had to prove that being poor didn’t make him a bad father. Despite Watkins’ constant efforts, it took years to get Kenny […]
Posted inEditor's Pick
“They Took Us Away From Each Other”: Lost Inside America’s Shadow Foster System
“It would take years before Molly and Heaven would learn that neither of them was ever in the foster system. Instead, caseworkers had diverted them to what some scholars call ‘hidden foster care’ or ‘shadow foster care,’ in which the legal protections of the formal system disappear.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
‘Our Foster Child Asked Us to Adopt Him – By Drawing Himself on to a Family Photo’
The story of how, after years of difficulty, George finally found his family.
Posted inEditor's Pick
A Tiny Scar, From Falling
A personal essay in which Lara B. Sharp’s efforts to gather information about what happened to her in foster care and as a ward of the state turn up nothing but incorrect records.
Posted inEssays & Criticism, Nonfiction, Story, Unapologetic Women
A Tiny Scar, From Falling
Lara B. Sharp’s efforts to gather information about what happened to her in foster care and as a ward of the state turn up nothing but incorrect records.
Posted inEditor's Pick, Essays & Criticism, Nonfiction, Unapologetic Women
A Tiny Scar, From Falling
Lara B. Sharp’s efforts to gather information about what happened to her in foster care and as a ward of the state turn up nothing but incorrect records.
Posted inQuotes, Uncategorized
How ‘Jane Crow’ Is Ravaging Families of Color
Authorities in New York City are using foster care as punishment against poor, non-white families.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
The Kids Are Not Alright: How Opioids are Destroying American Families
As mom and dad nod out and overdose, the under-funded American foster care system is struggling to mind the children.