EVENT

END RESULT

CHILD PROTECTION

STATUS

WHAT CAUSED CHANGES

American Revolution

A modern country could exist without the need for titles of nobility.

Within limits, Individualism would be rewarded.

Virtually none.  Considered a private matter.

Orphans sometimes hired out to earn room and board with families (“Little Orphan Annie” poem, by J.W. Riley).

Continuing industrial v. agrarian strife.

Tariff questions.

The unresolved slavery question.

Civil War

Slavery was abolished.  Equal rights existed on paper.

Individualism flourished.

More orphanages established by the States.

Concept of foster care starts to develop, but with virtually no controls.

Gilded Age excesses.  Several bank panics.

Even Lincoln complained that corporate money was a corrupting influence.

The rich made themselves unpopular, and “progressive” ideas took root.

Income Tax Amendment Adopted

Seeds sown for government-led income redistribution.

Big government and more wars were made possible. 

States begin child protection laws, modeled after animal cruelty laws.

Concept of reform schools for juvenile criminals (delinquents) is adopted.

Great Depression

New Deal and the End of World War II

Government accepted as the employer of last resort. 

Concept of “entitlement” gradually enters the vocabulary.

People come to expect perfection, through an unspoken Government/Corporate alliance.

Social Security Act contains an obscure provision authorizing small Federal grants to States for child protection. 

The idea grows, and inspires the concept of professional social workers.  Schools of Social Work begin offering academic degrees.

Continuing racial and cultural strife. 

Public expectations of entitlement not fully met.

Continuing fear of nuclear war, and of Russia in particular.

The New Frontier, and the Great Society

Unbalanced budgets accepted as standard policy. 

Concept of “victimization” becomes institutionalized.

Foster care pushed, with federal assistance, as an alternative to orphanages. 

CPS (child protection service) agencies started in the States.  Social workers get more aggressive in removing children from their homes. 

Mandatory reporting laws implemented.  Schools integrated into the child protection process.

Quagmire of Vietnam. 

The Great Inflation, roughly from 1964-1982.

Election of Pres. Reagan and the Conservative Resurgence

Inflation curtailed.

Cold War effectively ended.

Problems in foster care recognized, and greater efforts encouraged to “reunify” families.  Little actual change, however.

Oil wars erupt in the Mideast.

Other nations gain economic power, confusing the people.

More recessions occur. 

Election of President Clinton

Economic stability achieved.

Low inflation still generally recognized as desirable.

Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) passed.  This formalizes the process of Federal aid to encourage State child removals and adoptions.

CPS agencies increase staff and budget clout.

Mideast unrest continues.

Cold War replaced by “culture wars”, and Western/Muslim strife.

2000 election stolen from Al Gore.

9/11/01 Attacks

War now a permanent part of American life. 

Great Society suffers a decline, and

expectations are again felt to be unmet.

Federal grants to states for adoption increase.

States provide lawyers to indigent parents involved with CPS, but never enough to match CPS power.

Bipartisan backlash against President Bush, due to Iraq War and political/cultural reasons.

Increased fears of globalization.  Strife over illegal immigration.

Major recession, or even Mild Depression, strikes.

Disaffection over health care, global warming, and energy wars.

Emergence of attractive African-American candidate.

Election of President Obama

Too early to tell. 

Highly Likely: Continuance of entitlement and victimization mentality; more government employment; dramatically unbalanced budgets. 

Possible emergence of a highly-regulated Government State, with Individualism barely tolerated.

Too early to tell.

Likely: Creation of a Federal Department of Child Protection; more encroachment into family life, led by schools, hospitals, and physicians; less tolerance for non-conformist parents.

Too early to tell.

Possibly: Reaction against the Corporate State, and another attempt at Conservative (or Individualist) Resurgence.