The Rights of Putative Fathers to Their Infant Children in Contested Adoptions: Strengthening State Laws that Currently Deny Adequate Protection

This paper argues that states need to strengthen protection of putative fathers\u27 rights to their infant children when the mother wishes for the child to be adopted. Part I frames the discussion around established parental rights through constitutional case law. To do this, the paper addresses both the Supreme Court\u27s parental rights doctrine and its biology-plus doctrine, which requires unwed fathers to show that in addition to being the biological father they also have taken responsibility for their children. Part II describes common state statutes that affect putative fathers, including putative father registries, safe haven laws, and laws granting custody of an infant child to preadoptive parents instead of the father when he contests an adoption petition. Part II also discusses these statutes\u27 inherent flaws, which violate an unwed father\u27s parental and due process rights, and suggests ways states can strengthen these statutes to provide greater protection for fathers. Part III addresses how state practices implicate poor policy decisions. Specifically, states promote adoption for illegitimate children even when unnecessary and psychologically harmful, and when federal child welfare policy promotes family preservation. Part IV adds two more recommendations for how states can strengthen their protection for unwed fathers: greater compulsion of mothers\u27 cooperation in identifying the father of their child and better recognition of the child\u27s interest in being raised by a biological parent

Children\u27s Justice: How to Improve Legal Representation of Children in the Child Welfare System

From 2009 to 2016 the University of Michigan Law School served as the National Quality Improvement Center on the Representation of Children in the Child Welfare System (QIC-ChildRep). This seven-year, multimillion dollar project, directed by Clinical Professor Don Duquette, conducted a national needs assessment that identified a substantial consensus on the role and duties of the child’s lawyer. The needs assessment led to the QIC-ChildRep Best Practice Model, an update and expansion of the 1996 ABA Standards for Lawyers Representing Children in Child Abuse and Neglect Cases. Released in 2016 as a300-page softcover book, CHILDREN\u27S JUSTICE is the final report of the QIC-ChildRep project, guiding the reader through 13 chapters and 3 appendices: Chapter 1: Challenge: Improve Child Representation in America Chapter 2: Evolution of Child Representation Chapter 3: National Needs Assessment Chapter 4: Emerging Consensus and the QIC Best Practice Model Chapter 5: Six Core Skills and the QIC Best Practice Training Chapter 6: What the Lawyers Say About Implementing the Six Core Skills Chapter 7: Sample Selection and Research Methods Chapter 8: Profile of Lawyers Representing Children Chapter 9: Lawyer Activities and Their Impact Chapter 10: Findings of the Evaluation of the QIC-ChildRep Best Practices Model Training for Attorneys Chapter 11: Reflections on QIC Empirical Findings Chapter 12: The Flint MDT Study: A Description and Evaluation of a Multidisciplinary Team Representing Children in Child Welfare Cases Chapter 13: How to Improve Legal Representation of Children in America’s Child Welfare System Appendix A: QIC Best Practice Model of Child Representation in the Child Welfare System Appendix B: 1996 American Bar Association Standards of Practice for Lawyers Who Represent Children in Abuse and Neglect Cases Appendix C: 2011 ABA Model Act Governing Representation of Children in Abuse, Neglect and Dependency Proceedings This product was created by the National Quality Improvement Center on the Representation of Children in the Child Welfare System at the University of Michigan Law School, Cooperative Agreement No. 90CO1047, funded by the Children’s Bureau, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.https://repository.law.umich.edu/books/1109/thumbnail.jp

The Rights of Putative Fathers to Their Infant Children in Contested Adoptions: Strengthening State Laws that Currently Deny Adequate Protection

This paper argues that states need to strengthen protection of putative fathers\u27 rights to their infant children when the mother wishes for the child to be adopted. Part I frames the discussion around established parental rights through constitutional case law. To do this, the paper addresses both the Supreme Court\u27s parental rights doctrine and its biology-plus doctrine, which requires unwed fathers to show that in addition to being the biological father they also have taken responsibility for their children. Part II describes common state statutes that affect putative fathers, including putative father registries, safe haven laws, and laws granting custody of an infant child to preadoptive parents instead of the father when he contests an adoption petition. Part II also discusses these statutes\u27 inherent flaws, which violate an unwed father\u27s parental and due process rights, and suggests ways states can strengthen these statutes to provide greater protection for fathers. Part III addresses how state practices implicate poor policy decisions. Specifically, states promote adoption for illegitimate children even when unnecessary and psychologically harmful, and when federal child welfare policy promotes family preservation. Part IV adds two more recommendations for how states can strengthen their protection for unwed fathers: greater compulsion of mothers\u27 cooperation in identifying the father of their child and better recognition of the child\u27s interest in being raised by a biological parent

Legal ethics and high child welfare worker turnover: An unexplored connection

This article, which grew out of a series of 11 focus groups with child welfare workers and supervisors, explores how legal ethics may increase the stress child welfare workers experience in carrying out their duties and may contribute to high rates of turnover. A number of workers experienced their interaction with lawyers and the legal system as extremely stressful. Others misunderstood the role of a lawyer. This article considers the various sources of legal and social work ethics and standards of practice at work in lawyer-social worker interaction in the child welfare context and provides a comparison of legal ethics with social work ethics on a number of dimensions. Ethical issues such as defining the client, confidentiality, client loyalty and zealous advocacy are considered. Additionally, issues which are not specifically ethical in nature but are closely related are considered. These include efforts to be objective in handling the work, the personal affront experienced by many child welfare workers when their judgment is called into question and methods of communication. The article concludes that there is a need for training to assist child welfare workers to understand legal ethics and how they contribute to high turnover rates.

Children\u27s Justice: How to Improve Legal Representation of Children in the Child Welfare System

From 2009 to 2016 the University of Michigan Law School served as the National Quality Improvement Center on the Representation of Children in the Child Welfare System (QIC-ChildRep). This seven-year, multimillion dollar project, directed by Clinical Professor Don Duquette, conducted a national needs assessment that identified a substantial consensus on the role and duties of the child’s lawyer. The needs assessment led to the QIC-ChildRep Best Practice Model, an update and expansion of the 1996 ABA Standards for Lawyers Representing Children in Child Abuse and Neglect Cases. Released in 2016 as a300-page softcover book, CHILDREN\u27S JUSTICE is the final report of the QIC-ChildRep project, guiding the reader through 13 chapters and 3 appendices: Chapter 1: Challenge: Improve Child Representation in America Chapter 2: Evolution of Child Representation Chapter 3: National Needs Assessment Chapter 4: Emerging Consensus and the QIC Best Practice Model Chapter 5: Six Core Skills and the QIC Best Practice Training Chapter 6: What the Lawyers Say About Implementing the Six Core Skills Chapter 7: Sample Selection and Research Methods Chapter 8: Profile of Lawyers Representing Children Chapter 9: Lawyer Activities and Their Impact Chapter 10: Findings of the Evaluation of the QIC-ChildRep Best Practices Model Training for Attorneys Chapter 11: Reflections on QIC Empirical Findings Chapter 12: The Flint MDT Study: A Description and Evaluation of a Multidisciplinary Team Representing Children in Child Welfare Cases Chapter 13: How to Improve Legal Representation of Children in America’s Child Welfare System Appendix A: QIC Best Practice Model of Child Representation in the Child Welfare System Appendix B: 1996 American Bar Association Standards of Practice for Lawyers Who Represent Children in Abuse and Neglect Cases Appendix C: 2011 ABA Model Act Governing Representation of Children in Abuse, Neglect and Dependency Proceedings This product was created by the National Quality Improvement Center on the Representation of Children in the Child Welfare System at the University of Michigan Law School, Cooperative Agreement No. 90CO1047, funded by the Children’s Bureau, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.https://repository.law.umich.edu/books/1109/thumbnail.jp

Brazilian Flora 2020: Leveraging the power of a collaborative scientific network

International audienceThe shortage of reliable primary taxonomic data limits the description of biological taxa and the understanding of biodiversity patterns and processes, complicating biogeographical, ecological, and evolutionary studies. This deficit creates a significant taxonomic impediment to biodiversity research and conservation planning. The taxonomic impediment and the biodiversity crisis are widely recognized, highlighting the urgent need for reliable taxonomic data. Over the past decade, numerous countries worldwide have devoted considerable effort to Target 1 of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC), which called for the preparation of a working list of all known plant species by 2010 and an online world Flora by 2020. Brazil is a megadiverse country, home to more of the world's known plant species than any other country. Despite that, Flora Brasiliensis, concluded in 1906, was the last comprehensive treatment of the Brazilian flora. The lack of accurate estimates of the number of species of algae, fungi, and plants occurring in Brazil contributes to the prevailing taxonomic impediment and delays progress towards the GSPC targets. Over the past 12 years, a legion of taxonomists motivated to meet Target 1 of the GSPC, worked together to gather and integrate knowledge on the algal, plant, and fungal diversity of Brazil. Overall, a team of about 980 taxonomists joined efforts in a highly collaborative project that used cybertaxonomy to prepare an updated Flora of Brazil, showing the power of scientific collaboration to reach ambitious goals. This paper presents an overview of the Brazilian Flora 2020 and provides taxonomic and spatial updates on the algae, fungi, and plants found in one of the world's most biodiverse countries. We further identify collection gaps and summarize future goals that extend beyond 2020. Our results show that Brazil is home to 46,975 native species of algae, fungi, and plants, of which 19,669 are endemic to the country. The data compiled to date suggests that the Atlantic Rainforest might be the most diverse Brazilian domain for all plant groups except gymnosperms, which are most diverse in the Amazon. However, scientific knowledge of Brazilian diversity is still unequally distributed, with the Atlantic Rainforest and the Cerrado being the most intensively sampled and studied biomes in the country. In times of “scientific reductionism”, with botanical and mycological sciences suffering pervasive depreciation in recent decades, the first online Flora of Brazil 2020 significantly enhanced the quality and quantity of taxonomic data available for algae, fungi, and plants from Brazil. This project also made all the information freely available online, providing a firm foundation for future research and for the management, conservation, and sustainable use of the Brazilian funga and flora