Kentucky holds a summit on child welfare law – why don’t we?

The Chief Justice of the Kentucky Juvenile Court System goes on to say:

The changes, which will take effect immediately, coincided with the announcement of an initiative by Lambert to improve Kentucky’s courts and child welfare system.

The first-ever Kentucky Summit on Children will be held Aug. 27-30 in Louisville, Lambert said.

As many as 500 professionals will gather to offer recommendations to the Administrative Office of the Courts that don’t necessarily require changes in the law.

“All corners of the state will be included in this broad-based discussion on how to provide the best care to our children,” Lambert said.

  I don’t know about you, but this is MY kind of activist judge.  I cannot imagine anything like this happening in Massachusetts!

What started this initiative in Kentucky?  Well:

A federal law passed in the late 1990s directs social workers to find prospective adoptive parents for children soon after they are placed in foster care and allows courts to terminate parental rights more quickly than in the past.

and

Two Kentucky child advocacy groups released a report in January 2006 that raised the possibility that the cabinet was removing children inappropriately.

….

Then, earlier this year, a cabinet inspector general’s report said that some social workers in Elizabethtown broke laws as they unjustly removed children from their biological parents.

This happens all the time in Massachusetts as well.  Children are removed who do not need to be, and often in violation of the “Code of Massachusetts Regulations”.  For example, parents are supposed to be involved in drafting their service plans – and reasonable efforts prior to removal are supposed to occur.  Parents are NEVER consulted or involved in drafting their service plans, and I have rarely seen services provided that are relevant to the articulated protective concerns.

In our state, I see a commitment to adoption, not to serving families.  To me, it looks like a social engineering agenda – reduce the so-called underclass by moving their children up the class ladder.  See http://www.parliamen…