A recent article published in Youth Today might interest you: “Child Maltreatment History Should Be a Bar to Being a Foster Parent.” The authors are Daniel Pollack and Noy Davis.
It’s just common sense: An adult's past criminal history or history of child maltreatment is not to be balanced against the safety of a child. This is not to say a person with any criminal record should be barred as a foster parent, but certainly an applicant with a substantiated history of child maltreatment, no matter how far in the distant past, should be permanently barred.
Foster care agencies have a legitimate reason to inquire about a prospective foster parent’s criminal and child maltreatment history, be it an inquiry, arrest, charge or conviction. Why? Quite simply, the agency seeks to maximize child safety.
The entire article may be read on the website of Youth Today at this URL:
http://youthtoday.org/2016/06/child-maltreatment-history-should-be-a-bar-to-being-a-foster-parent/
Daniel Pollack, MSSA (MSW), JD is a professor at Yeshiva University, School of Social Work, in New York City and a frequent expert witness in child welfare cases. Contact information: [email protected], 212-960-0836
