A Closer Examination of Family Group Decision Making in
Child Placement
metaphor of a “salad bowl” has been suggested to replace the
common “melting pot” notion of the U.S., acknowledging that people
co-exist as separate parts, but add up to a whole.141 This conception
of a cultural identity is in direct conflict with our own child welfare
system, premised on the substitution of inadequate care with those
caregivers who are better suited to raise and provide for children,
regardless of the child’s preexisting community ties.142 The current
structure of the child welfare system overlooks the importance of
culture, tradition, and family values passed from one generation to
the next. By focusing primarily on the individual resources and
abilities of the caregivers, the needs of the child and greater
community are often disregarded.
Although ASFA required child welfare agencies to increase
their attention on actively searching for kin caregivers,143 it remains
important for states to emphasize policies encouraging kin
placements and to provide resources to kinship foster families similar
to those of their non-kin counterparts. In addition to these efforts,
child welfare systems must expand their implementation of
community-based and customized responses to reports of child abuse
and neglect or parentless children. One such effort involves Family
Group Decision Making (“FGDM”), a client-centered practice model
incorporating the immediate and extended families directly in the
decision-making process.144 Family involvement interventions have
141 Gerda Lerner, Reconceptualizing Differences Among Women, 1 J. WOMEN’S
HIST. 106, 107-08 (1990).
142 See supra Part III (discussing the emergence of the child welfare system in the
U.S. and the tendency to focus on the individual rather than the community as a
whole).
143 Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997, Pub. L. No. 105-89, 111 Stat. 2115;
Geen, supra note 97, at 137.
144 Janess Sheets et al., Evidence-Based Practice in Family Group Decision-Making for Anglo, African American and Hispanic Families, 31 CHILD. & YOUTH
SERVS. REV. 1187, 1187 (2009); NW. INST. FOR CHILDREN & FAMILIES,
CONNECTED AND CARED FOR: USING FAMILY GROUP CONFERENCING FOR
CHILDREN IN GROUP CARE 1, 3 (2002) [hereinafter CONNECTED AND CARED FOR],
http://site.americanhumane.org/site/DocServer/pc_fgdm_research_NWinstitute.pdf
?docID=1202.
