Foster Care Bill of Rights
Our Bill of Rights provides children with enforceable legal protections while they are in the state’s care. These protections ensure that children have the right to stay with their siblings, making joint placement the legal default to preserve their most vital family bonds.
Every child also has the legal right to live in a home free from abuse. We enforce this by mandating independent investigation pathways for every report of mistreatment, ensuring that agency secrecy cannot hide a child’s safety concerns. Children also have the right to know why they were removed and what the state’s plan is for their future. We require caseworkers to explain these plans in age-appropriate language and keep children informed of every court date and major decision affecting their lives
April 20, 2026Research & ReportsAsserting, Arguing, and Appealing the Constitutional Rights of Children in Foster Care. Read more here.
- February 4, 2026News & Press Release
In this comprehensive training, Tom Jose, Director of our Children’s Law Clinic, explores the vital legal protections that safeguard children within the foster care system. While children in state custody are often the [...]
April 7, 2025Op-Eds & CommentaryIn The Imprint, reporter Jeremy Loudenback highlighted California’s efforts to change mandatory reporting laws, a movement spurred by advocates who believe the current system unnecessarily pulls innocent families into the child welfare system. Loudenback featured the story of Roger De Leon, Jr., who was investigated for suspected abuse only to be later found innocent, as one traumatic example.
March 27, 2025Research & ReportsIn a searing new memo released today, Lives in the Balance: A Bold Plan to Fix America’s Broken Child Protection System, the Center for the Rights of Abused Children lays bare an unflinching truth:
February 2, 2025Events & TestimonyUpon the strength of the family rests the future of the nation,” President Ronald Reagan declared when he established National Foster Care Month in 1988.1 Then as now, some families are unable or [...]
June 26, 2024Events & TestimonyStrengthening Child Welfare by Reauthorizing Title IV-B of the Social Security Act to Provide Traditional Counsel for Children The Center for the Rights of Abused Children supports H.R. 8810 to encourage states to [...]
- May 1, 2024Events & Testimony, Model Reforms
Social Security Benefit Referrals for Children in Foster Care and Transfer of Payee Representation for Children and Young Adults Upon Entry and Exit from Foster Care The lives of children are those most [...]
April 8, 2024Events & TestimonyThe Center for the Rights of Abused Children' s History on the Issue After becoming aware of the fact that states were using more than $160 million of children's federal benefits to reimburse [...]
April 6, 2024News & Press ReleaseThe Colorado legislature has passed a landmark reform strengthening core legal protections for children in the foster care system.
March 7, 2024Events & TestimonyAppointing Client-Directed Counsel to Children in Children-in Need-of-Care Proceedings Appointing a guardian ad litem (GAL) in cases involving abused children results in confusion. This confusion stems from the unclear and potentially conflicting ethical [...]