There was a time in Principal Holmes’s career when she might have expected more from the child protection system. She was young and idealistic. Now she knows better. She reports negligent parents because it is the law—not because she thinks that children are better off in foster care. Usually it is the opposite. A child does better at home, even under the stress of ACS monitoring. For a child to truly thrive, says Holmes, her parents would be more than monitored. They would be given material help to fight housing instability, unemployment, food scarcity, segregated schools, and other
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