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1 Cardozo Pub. L. Pol'y & Ethics J. 131 (2003)
Children as Chattel: Invoking the Thirteenth Amendment to Reform Child Welfare

handle is hein.journals/cardplp1 and id is 143 raw text is: CHILDREN AS CHATTEL: INVOKING THE THIRTEENTH AMENDMENT TO REFORM CHILD WELFARE Kurt Mundorff* During my fourteen months as a Child Protective Specialist for the New York City Administration for Children's Services I generally inves- tigated two or three cases a week. I also accompanied co-workers on their home visits. Through my job, I became involved in the lives of dozens of families and hundreds of children. The Community District for which my unit was responsible was on the far eastern edge of Queens and contained African American and white neighborhoods. I rarely went to the white neighborhoods, but I became very familiar with the African American neighborhoods. I knew their streets. I knew their school officials. I knew their homes. I was surprised that almost none of the parents that I investigated had abused or neglected their children. I was involved with over a hundred cases, but only dealt with one case of real child neglect and one case of classic child abuse. During my time with the agency I saw several children taken from homes where they faced some level of very real danger. I also saw the agency steamroll many dozens of innocent families. They became in- volved in a system that was capricious, abusive, and which seemed to do more harm than good. The only help we offered the children was to place them in foster care; there seemed to be no intention of helping parents. Very quickly, it became clear to me that the help of foster care was no help at all. While I met some warm, caring foster parents, the vast majority of foster parents I met were obviously in it for the money. They were baby boarders. * B.A. History, University of Oregon, June 1992. Graduate, New York City Administra- tion for Children's Services, James Satterwhite Academy, Division of Child Protection, Child Protective Specialist Core Training, July 2000. M.A. forensic psychology, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Feb. 2002. J.D. candidate Benjamin Cardozo School of Law (June 2004). Staff editor, Cardozo Public Law, Policy, and Ethics Journal. I want to express my thanks to E. Nathaniel Gates and Carolyn Kubitschek for their guidance and encouragement with this note. I also want to thank Aviva Orenstein and Dorothy Roberts for reviewing early drafts of this note. Finally, the staff of the Cardozo Public Law, Policy, and Ethics journal, especially Emily Compton, deserve great praise for their efforts in bringing this note to publication.

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