Preventing children from being injured and abused by properly vetting prospective adoptive and foster parents

To avoid children being injured, re-traumatized and abused again it is important that potential adoptive and foster parents be proprely vetted. A proper vetting doesn’t only mean criminal background check identity verification, employment history, character, and residency but also going through the life history of each parent and make sure the information they provided is accurate and complete. In a recent article, Daniel Pollack, a professor at Yeshiva University’s School of Social Work in New York City explains what prospective adoptive or foster parents should expect during the vetting process. The complete article can be downloaded here

In another short article, Daniel Pollack looks at informal parenting. For various reasons some children are being raised by caregivers who are not the parents. Caregivers can be relatives or friends of the parents. Most of the time no lawyers or legal documents are signed between the parents and the caregivers. It is based on a trust relationship. However in some specific cases informal parenting arrangements may need approval from the State. The article discusses these specific cases and can be downloaded here.