Elizabeth Bartholet

More than a year ago, I wrote a column called Donald Trump and the Child Savers: Not a Band, But They Sing the Same Song. In that column I wrote: Some of the same people who probably are horrified by Donald Trump seem to have no problem using his tactics in the fight against child abuse.

Three years after a group of researchers sought to evaluate the research base of differential response programs, the effectiveness of the much-debated program has been revisited in a special edition of the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children (APSAC) Advisor.

In her latest paper, Harvard Law School professor Elizabeth Bartholet does her best to dismember the widely popular child welfare strategy known as Differential Response, or simply DR. Bartholet’s argument has some limitations, and includes statements that will surely rankle the child welfare establishment.

The number of children in foster care in Los Angeles has decreased dramatically from 52,000 to 19,000 in the last decade. That number is back on the rise, due in part to policy changes at the county’s Department of Children and Families.