Chronicle Of Social Change Archive

15-year-old Arizona boy Gerald Francis Gault was taken into custody for allegedly making an obscene prank phone call to a neighbor in June 1964. His parents were not notified of his arrest. In a subsequent hearing, the complaining witness did …

We are living at a time when race is central to the national dialogue about justice and the need to transform our broken justice system is an increasing part of the public consciousness. While much of this conversation is focused …

In reading Daniel Heimpel’s article “Responding to foster kids like Alex, L.A. County acts to protect educational stability,” it occurred to me that Los Angeles County is focused on a poorer solution than the one that ultimately worked for Alex. …

The Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) came about because the federal government and states had a long history of treating Native American* parents as unfit just by their being Indian.

In 1984, George Orwell defined “doublethink” as holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting them both. In child welfare, for example, we have been told for decades that child welfare systems don’t take away children because their …

Prolonged temporary care, whether unintended or not, amounts to child abuse.  Child protection agencies have the power to radically reduce time in foster care, but too often back off, waiting to see how the birth parents do. Meanwhile, as the child remains …

This weekend, over 200 people gathered at Fullscreen Media in Playa Vista for #HackFosterCareLA – Los Angeles’ iteration of the hackathon events that have been taking place across the country since last May at the White House. Fostering Media Connections …