TPR

We’re counting down 10 of the biggest stories The Imprint covered in 2018. Each day, we’ll connect readers with a few links to our coverage on a big story from 2018.

If a parent is unfit and cannot care for his child, we should automatically terminate his parental rights. Right? Well, maybe not. A few years back, one of my former clients – a child who had aged out of the foster care system – graduated from law school.

In 1998, the federal government started an incentive program aimed at pushing states to finalize more adoptions of youth in foster care. But in the decades since its inception, few states have seen any consistent benefit from the half-billion dollars spent on incentives.

In a decision that appears to further punish children who have already been abused, the West Virginia Supreme Court ruled that a child cannot inherit from a parent whose rights have been terminated.