The History of the Child Protection System

Abstract

This chapter addresses the history of the child protection system beginning with the orphanages of the nineteenth century, along with the placing out of children on the “orphan trains,” and the forcible assimilation of Native Americans in federal residential schools. A charitable system, in which children were separated by religion and race, was gradually replaced by the government-funded twentieth-century child protection movement supported by federal laws that regulated the care of children. Twentieth-century legislative reforms included laws that attempted to limit the time children spend in foster care to promote permanency planning, but problems of youth aging out of foster care during adolescence continue. Additional reforms, including the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), which attempted to remedy the harms to Native American children, are discussed as well. This complex history of child protection in the United States has continued to be impacted by racial disparities in the treatment of children of color and the conditions of foster care.