School of Law Hosts Child Welfare Symposium
On November 17, 2007, distinguished scholars and practitioners
from diverse disciplines gathered at St. John’s University School
of Law for a day-long examination of the child welfare
system. Titled Race, Culture, Class, and Crisis in Child
Welfare: Theory into Practice, the symposium featured expert
dialogue designed to raise awareness of the bearing that race,
culture, and class have on the child welfare system, and to explore
alternatives for improving child welfare. The symposium was
hosted by the School of Law’s Child
Advocacy Clinic and supported by a grant from the U.S.
Department of Justice. Papers from the symposium will be
published in the St. John’s Law Review.
In her remarks opening the symposium,
Theresa Hughes, Director of the Child Advocacy Clinic, noted
that St. John’s is situated in the most culturally diverse place on
the planet: Queens County, New York, where within just 109 square
miles live over 2 million people who speak 138 different
languages. And although child maltreatment is a phenomenon
familiar to all ethnic groups, she went on to say, people of color
are considerably overrepresented in the child welfare system.
Throughout her remarks, which were accompanied by
a five-minute video, Prof. Hughes stressed the importance of
the voices of the children in directing the course for improving
the child welfare system.
In the Child
Advocacy Clinic, St. John's law students represent
children who are the victims of child maltreatment in New York
State Family Court. The student appear in court pursuant to a
student practice order and work under the close supervision of the
School of Law's clinic faculty. The Clinic takes a
multidisciplinary approach to advocacy, working with partners from
the University’s departments of psychology, counseling and human
services, and fine arts.
Keynote Address
The Keynote Address was delivered by Barbara Bennett
Woodhouse, the David H. Levin Chair in Family Law and Director
of the Center on Children and Families at the University of Florida
Fredric G. Levin College of Law. In a lecture titled
Race, Culture, Class and the Myth of Crisis: Child Welfare from
an Ecogenerist Perspective, Professor Woodhouse explained that
the pernicious effect of poverty (and therefore race) on the
welfare of children is not a “crisis,” but rather a deeply
entrenched status quo. Real change, Professor Woodhouse
argued, is possible only if we look beyond “the personal and the
systemic to the environmental and weigh the long term social costs
of ignoring the environmental risks of poverty and racism,”
suggesting that family supports and prevention need to be the
foundation of the system.
Theory into Practice
In the morning panel, which was moderated by Rosemary
C. Salomone, Kenneth Wang Professor of Law at St. John’s, four
distinguished academics discussed the theoretical implications of
race, culture, and class for the child welfare system.
Professor Twila
Perry of Rutgers School of Law, discussed the racial divide
surrounding trans-racial adoption.
Martin Guggenheim, the Fiorello Laguardia Professor of Clinical
Law at New York University School of Law, posed the question of
whether our society embraces a “robust” child welfare system,
antagonistic to our values, simply to proclaim to others our love
and commitment to children.
Susan Mangold, Vice Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor at
the University of Buffalo Law School, challenged the audience to
think about ways to consider the structure of the laws surrounding
child welfare. Sandra Azar,
Professor of Clinical Psychology at Penn State, summarized research
into the cognitive components of cross-cultural human interactions
in the child welfare system.
In the afternoon, the discussion turned from theory to
practice. Three of the afternoon speakers were public
officials directly involved in the operation of the child welfare
system. Janet DiFiore,
the Westchester County District Attorney, discussed the law
enforcement response to child abuse and neglect, emphasizing that
the modern prosecutor’s office must be “proactive and holistic”
rather than merely “reactive.”
John Mattingly, the Commissioner of New York City’s
Administration for Children’s Services, and Kevin Ryan, the
Commissioner of New Jersey’s Department of Children and Families,
described the efforts that their agencies are making to ensure that
children are protected and that families are supported in all
communities. Rounding out the afternoon panel, Dr. Lisa
Aronson Fontes, author of
Child Abuse and Culture: Working with Diverse Families,
discussed the crucial role of language and interpreters in the
child welfare system, and Professor Peter
Margulies of Roger Williams University School of Law discussed
the challenges facing lawyers who represent children in the
system.
In concluding remarks, School of Law Professor Elaine
Chiu noted that one of the goals of the symposium was to bring
together a diverse group of academics and practitioners so that “we
can learn from each other.” To that end, the symposium was a
great success.
Contact Information
For more information about the symposium or about the Child
Advocacy Clinic, contact Professor Theresa Hughes at (718) 990-2937
or hughest@stjohns.edu.