EPPiC Broadcast

Child welfare and family services claim to act in the best interest of children, but far too often government agencies punish innocent parents and rip apart low-income and minority families.

What would a child welfare system look like that supports parents and keeps families together?

This week, Michael talks with Joyce McMillan, Founder of JMAC for Families and the PLAN Coalition. Joyce is a deeply respected NYC activist for families, and she has been there herself. Joyce tells us about her work defending families in New York, how the system is failing parents and children, and what a better model of child welfare might look like.

See more of Joyce’s work at her new website, jmacforfamilies.com.

This week, we talk with Erin Phillips, president of Power2Parent, an organization uniting parents who want to advocate for their children’s education. Power2Parent is based in Nevada, but maintains chapters in many states. Erin tells us about recent challenges to parents rights in Nevada that her organization has faced, plus victories in Nevada and across the country.

Welcome back to the EPPiC Broadcast! We’re kicking off season 7 with Andrew Brown, Associate Vice President of Policy at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. As an attorney, Andrew has represented children in the child welfare system, advocated for the rights of parents, and helped build families through domestic and international adoption.

Andrew breaks down some recent major wins for Texas families in the child welfare system. Texas recently passed into law five bills that help families, which will take effect very soon. These new laws guarantee that parents under investigation in child welfare cases have access to legal representation, replace anonymous child abuse reporting with confidential reporting, and more. Andrew explains these recent reforms in more detail, plus how they will affect families who find themselves involved in child welfare investigations.

This week, we talk with Jerry Milner, former Associate Commissioner of the Children’s Bureau in the US Department of Health and Human Services. Far too often, the US child welfare system creates incentives to unnecessarily separate families, harming the children it tries to protect. During his tenure with the Children’s Bureau, Jerry worked to create reforms that prioritize family preservation and reunification instead. Now, Jerry serves as the Director of the Family Justice Group.

This week, we talk with Dr. Josh Gupta-Kagan, Professor at Columbia University School of Law and author of “The Hidden Foster Care System.” Josh explains how many parents in child welfare investigations find their children placed with relatives, completely off the official record. While placing children with relatives, sometimes called kinship care, is not an inherently bad thing and can result in good outcomes for families, the severe lack of oversight and documentation in these placements is a glaring problem. Josh tells us what happens during an off-the-record placement, why the child welfare system doesn’t keep track of these cases, and how he’s fighting for reform and better oversight.