Stoneleigh Fellow Steve Volk authors an article on a Philadelphia mother’s fight to reunite with her children and the window it offers into the challenges of American cities’ child welfare systems – as well as how they can be improved.
Early last spring, Nichole Macauley thought her three-plus year dependency court battle was finally over. After countless hearings, a revolving door of case managers, and years of painstaking compliance with court-ordered plans, the Philadelphia mother of three saw the outcome she wanted within reach.
“‘Reunification! We’re going for reunification!’ That’s what they told me,” she said.
When she arrived at court, however, a city attorney informed her that reunification was “off the table.”
For Macauley, whose children now range in age from five to 16, the blow proved devastating. She spent the following weeks vacillating between hope, anger and a depression that kept her in bed sometimes till late morning. She had, however, half expected the disappointment. She had long suspected that decisions about her children were being made by forces that had less to do with facts or law than with administrative inertia, workplace churn, even bad vibes with her case manager.
