Research & Education

November 2023: UFA member Richard Wexler is quoted on NPR Morning Edition: ‘Deluged’ child welfare systems struggle to protect kids amid calls for reform

June 2023: UFA member Richard Wexler is quoted in the Detroit News: Mothers: CPS taking away kids causes ‘generational trauma’ 

September 2023: Josh Gupta-Kagan on hidden foster care in the Missouri Independent: Missouri must reduce family separations, not only formal foster care numbers 

August 2023: EPPiC Broadcast: “Reforming the Texas Foster Care System with UFA members Michael Ramey and Andrew Brown 

August 2023: National Coalition for Child Protection Reform, led by UFA member Richard Wexler, releases Colorado Trails, a report that details the Colorado Department of Human Service’s harms to children

July 2023: UFA member Michael Ramey is interviewed on The Imprint Weekly Podcast on empowering parents and protecting children

August 2022: EPPiC Broadcast: “Representing Parents in Family Court with UFA members Michael Ramey and Kathleen Creamer 

April 2022: UFA members quoted in BuzzFeed News: “It’s Like A Leech On Me”: Child Abuse Registries Punish Unsuspecting Parents Of Color

Policy Advocacy:

July 2024: The New York Times reports on a case that UFA member Chris Gottlieb’s Family Defense Clinic at NYU is co-counsel on, which received support from both the Right and Left

March 2024: UFA member Richard Wexler’s op-ed about Massachusetts’ child welfare system is published in the Commonwealth Beacon

February 2024: UFA member Chris Gottlieb’s Family Defense Clinic at NYU is instrumental in filing a class action lawsuit challenging illegal searches, highlighted in the New York Times and The Imprint

February 2024: UFA member Richard Wexler publishes op-eds in the Lexington Herald Leader and Rhode Island Current

Sept 2023: New legislation (SB 614) restricts hidden foster care in Texas, including providing parents with notice of their right to legal counsel prior to voluntary placement, limiting the time children can be in such placements, and requiring the Department of Family and Protective Services to publish data on hidden foster care

August 2023: The University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School and Temple University Beasley School of Law collaborated with Community Legal Services of Philadelphia on a report, Advocating Abolition of PA ChildLine Registry

July 2023: UFA joins a national coalition in Washington, D.C. to raise awareness about hidden foster care in a Congressional briefing, in partnership with the Congressional Caucus on Foster Youth 

July 2023: UFA’s work advocating for a Family Miranda law in Texas is highlighted by ProPublica

August 2022: Community Legal Services of Philadelphia files a lawsuit in Philadelphia to have the child abuse registry process declared unconstitutional