几十年来，政策制定者一直像一块砖一块砖地搭建联邦儿童福利政策，依赖着那些关于政府应在儿童和家庭陷入困境时采取何种行动的过时假设。他们设计了各种项目，规定了所需资源，而僵化的资金结构则将这些不同层面紧密捆绑在一起。
For decades, policymakers have built federal child welfare policy brick by brick, relying on outdated assumptions about what the government should do when children and families struggle. They have designed programs and prescribed resources, while rigid funding structures have bound these layers together.
随着时间的推移，尽管有大量数据对儿童福利的融资机制及其相应的激励措施提出了质疑，这一结构却愈发固化。如今，每年有超过200万美国家庭受到儿童保护服务的调查。
Over time, this structure has hardened in place, despite overwhelming data that challenges the child welfare financing institution and its corresponding incentives. Today, more than 2 million American families are investigated by Child Protective Services each year.
在这些案例中，有84%并未证实存在虐待或忽视行为。然而，每年仍有约17.5万名儿童进入寄养体系，尽管数十年的结果已经表明，这种干预本身造成了伤害；而且我们现在甚至已经知道，进入寄养体系与儿童虐待致死之间并无关联。
In 84 percent of those cases, there is no substantiated finding of abuse or neglect. Yet every year, approximately 175,000 children enter foster care, despite decades of outcomes that show the harm the intervention itself causes, and even when we now know there is no association between foster care entries and child maltreatment fatalities.
对奈特·布斯塔门特而言，家庭分离是他人生中无法回避的主题。布斯塔门特童年时便进入寄养体系，多年后，当他自己成为父母时，他和妻子又面临了一起涉及他们自己孩子的儿童福利案件。为了应对家庭被强加的各种要求，同时承受可能失去孩子的风险，他不得不长时间工作。在第二次将孩子带走后，州政府甚至试图终止他和妻子的父母权利。尽管他们数月来都积极配合，最终仍不得不在法庭上捍卫自己作为家庭存续的权利。
For Nate Bustamente, family separation was an inescapable throughline in his life. Bustamente entered foster care as a child, and years later, after becoming a parent himself, he and his wife faced a child welfare case involving their own children. He worked long hours to meet the requirements imposed on his family while navigating the possibility of losing his children. After a second removal, the state pursued termination of his and his wife’s parental rights. Despite months of compliance, they still had to defend their right to remain a family in court.
布斯塔门特认为，正是他的律师以及负责监督家庭探视的家庭时间协调员，帮助法院理解了他们家庭正在经历的一切。法官驳回了终止父母权利的请求，案件最终也得以结案。回顾那一刻，布斯塔门特表示，他终于能够松一口气，不必再背负家庭可能遭遇不幸的重担——而太多陷入这个无情体系漩涡中的家庭，都曾经历过这样的煎熬。
Bustamente credits his attorney and the family-time supervisor who observed his family’s visits with helping the court understand what was happening in their lives. The judge denied the termination petition, and the case eventually closed. Reflecting on that moment, Bustamente described how he could finally breathe without carrying the weight of what might happen to his family — an experience facing too many families caught in the crosshairs of an unforgiving system.
“联合家庭倡导者”是一个由儿童福利倡导者、律师、研究人员和非营利组织领袖组成的跨党派团体，该团体最近发布了一套框架，旨在揭示联邦儿童福利资金的分配结构如何常常导致像布斯塔门特这样的家庭分离成为阻力最小的选择，尽管这本应是最后的手段。
United Family Advocates, a bipartisan group of child welfare advocates, attorneys, researchers and nonprofit leaders, recently released a framework to shed light on how federal child welfare financing is structured in ways that too often make family separations like Bustamente’s the path of least resistance, when it should be the last resort.
随着联邦政策制定者越来越多地审视现有儿童福利资金机制是否足以保障儿童安全、家庭稳定以及对纳税人资金的责任使用，显而易见，造成当前基本资金结构的零散体系亟需重大改革。目前的结构实际上是一项“法定支出计划”，相当于一个每年耗资100亿美元、专门用于拆散家庭的法定支出项目。
As federal policymakers increasingly examine whether existing child welfare funding mechanisms adequately support child safety, family stability, and responsible stewardship of taxpayer dollars, it is clear that the patchwork that created the fundamental financing structure we have today needs significant reform. The current structure is an entitlement program, and functions as a $10 billion entitlement to separate families.
各州需要更大的灵活性，以便投资于社区层面的支持服务，真正帮助家庭应对住房、食物、心理健康、药物滥用或其他挑战，同时仍需明确保留保护面临迫在眉睫危险儿童的角色。资金还应包括家庭无需进入儿童福利体系即可获得的支持资源，以及高质量的法律援助，以确保在涉及子女和家庭的关键决策中，家庭能够获得公正的流程。
States need greater flexibility to invest in the community-based supports families actually need to address housing, food, mental health, substance use, or other challenges, while preserving a clear role for protecting children facing imminent danger. Funding should also include resources families can access without having to enter the child welfare system, and access to high-quality legal representation to help ensure families have fair processes when such highly consequential decisions about their children and family are being made.
联邦政策制定者未来将面临重要讨论：联邦资源中应有多大的比例用于维持应对家庭危机的体系，又应有多少用于建设能够帮助家庭避免这些危机的基础设施？
Federal policymakers have important debates ahead of them about what proportion of federal resources should go toward maintaining a system that responds to family crises versus building the infrastructure that helps families avoid those crises in the first place.
对布斯塔门特而言，如果有一套持续性的社区支持体系来满足其家庭需求，而不是将家庭分离作为默认处理方式，或许就能改变他的人生轨迹。他的问题很简单：还有多少家庭必须经历他所经历的一切？持续不断的恐惧以及与孩子们共度的时光流逝，本不该是不可避免的。
For Bustamente, a continuum of community support to address his family’s needs without making separation the default response could have changed the trajectory of his life. His question is simple: How many more families have to go through what he went through? The constant fear and the lost time with his children are not inevitable.
几十年来，政策制定者不断添砖加瓦，维持着一个以分离为主要干预手段的系统。现在，是时候停止强化现状，开始重建一个能在危机演变为分离之前为家庭提供必要支持的基础了。
For decades, policymakers have added brick after brick to sustain a system that relies on separation as its primary intervention. It is time to stop reinforcing the status quo and start rebuilding a foundation that gives families the support they need before crisis becomes separation.
Joanna Lack 是 United Family Advocates 的执行主任。
Joanna Lack is executive director of United Family Advocates.