CHILD, FAMILY & STATE
Spring 2012
Professor Elizabeth Bartholet
Course Information and Syllabus
COURSE INFORMATION
Course Materials
Text is Abrams & Ramsey, CHILDREN AND THE LAW (4th ed. 2010)
Supplemental text is Bartholet, NOBODY’S CHILDREN (1999)
Multilithed materials will be available at Distribution
Administrative Details
Contact Information for
Professor Elizabeth Bartholet:
Contact Information for
Eleanor Topping,
Faculty Assistant to Elizabeth Bartholet:
Office: Hauser Hall 422
Telephone: (617) 495-3128
Email: ebarthol@law.harvard.edu
Office Hours: Fridays 3:00 - 5:00pm
(Email for appointment, or just walk in but if planning the latter, best to check first
to make sure available.)
Office: Hauser Hall 418
Telephone: (617) 496-0551
Email: etopping@law.harvard.edu
Schedule: M-F, 9:00 – 5:00 pm
Course Website
To access the course website, log on to iCommons (http://myhls.law.harvard.edu), go to
the My Courses box and click on Child, Family & State. Cross-registrants will
automatically gain access to the course website, once they drop off their completed
Cross-Registration Petition with the HLS Registrar’s Office. Either Professor Bartholet or
her assistant Eleanor Topping can sign forms. For questions about using the course
website and for training materials, all cross-registrants and auditors should contact the
ITS Student Helpdesk (617-495-9576), which is located in the basement of WCC B020
For further information about cross-registration procedures, visit:
http://www.law.harvard.edu/academics/cross-registration/index.html. Those wishing to
audit a class (both HLS and non-HLS students) should request permission from Prof.
Bartholet (e-mail will suffice) copying Eleanor Topping. When permission is granted
Eleanor will send your information to the registrar to be added to the course and get
updated in iSites.
Course Requirements
There will be a take-home examination on a scheduled day. Grades will be based
primarily on the exam, but may be adjusted up on the basis of class performance if the
class enrollment is 50 or less, and if assigned written or oral exercises are given may be
adjusted up or down based on such exercises. No laptops will be allowed in class.
1
SYLLABUS
Class meets Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 3:20 – 4:50pm (Note change in schedule
Week III)
Pages refer to Abrams & Ramsey, except NC refers to Nobody’s Children, and M refers
to Multilithed materials. The cases noted in Syllabus below are ones you should read
with special care for class discussion – often these are major Supreme Court cases.
Jan 24
THE STATUS, RIGHTS & OBLIGATIONS OF CHILDREN
1
Introduction & Background
1-15
The Law’s Evolving Conception:
Meyer, Pierce
U.S. Constitution, 14th Amendment
U.S. Supreme Court Justices
15-27
M1
M2
Jan 25
Prince, Brown v. Board, In re Gault, Tinker
27-48
Jan 31
Morse
Brown, Governor of California v. Entertainment
Merchants Association, 131 S. Ct. 2729 (2010)
48-64
M 3-27
Feb 1
Troxel, Yoder, Bellotti
65-92
Feb 7 GUEST LECTURERERS ON ROLE OF COUNSEL TBA
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
Perspectives on Children’s Rights
103-14
114-27
Bartholet, International Adoption: The Child’s Story,
24 Ga. St. U.L. Rev. 333 (2008), §IA
M 28-29
REPRESENTING CHILDREN
Introduction
204-10
2
The Child’s Right to Sue: Kingsley
234-38
The Role of the Child’s Counsel
238-48
Feb 8
ABUSE & NEGLECT
Introduction
284-88
NC 1-8,
22-29, 59-67
Guggenheim, Somebody’s Children, Book Review of
Bartholet’s NOBODY’S CHILDREN, 113 Harv. L. Rev
1716, 1716-17, 1735-50 (2000)
M 30-38
Discovering Abuse & Neglect: Reporting Systems:
Valmonte v. Bane
289-301
The Child Protection System
301-05
Feb 14
Limits on Intervention: In re Juvenile Appeal
Patterns of Abuse & Neglect:
Neglect, Psychological Maltreatment, Abuse: In re S.T.
Corporal Punishment: In re T.A.
305-15
315-37
NC 98-110
337-45
Feb 15
Sexual Abuse: In re T.G
345-56
Impact on Children
NC 95-97
Medical Decision Making and Medical Neglect
Decision-Making Authority: In re E.G., Parham
710-41
Feb 21
Medical Neglect: In re D.K., Newmark
3
741-64
Withholding Medical care
Philip B
Baby Doe CAPTA Amendments
182-96
764-70
Feb 22
Parental Substance Abuse: In re Dante, Problem 4-8
356-62,
NC 67-81,
207-32
Dwyer, The Child Protection Pretense: States’
Continued Consignment of Newborn Babies
To Unfit Parents
M 39-54
Dwyer, A Constitutional Birthright: The State,
Parentage, and the Rights of Newborn Persons
M 55
Dillard, Child Welfare and Future Persons
M 56-62
Feb 28
State Duty to Intervene/Child Right to Protection:
DeShaney
Reasonable Efforts Requirement, Termination of Parental
Rights:
In re N.M.W., Santosky, Lassiter
ASFA (1997) Excerpts
Bartholet, The Inherited Tradition
363-73
373-94
M 63-64
NC 33-43
Feb 29
Ashley, Jeffrey, Adoption of B.O.
394-413
NC 176-204
March 6
FOSTER CARE
Introduction
435-49
The Child’s Right to a Family:
Smith v. OFFER
449-464
March 7
Ashley, Procopio
464-75
4
Types of Placements
493-509
NC 81-95
More on Foster Care & the New Permanency Movement
NC 141-46,
154-59
SPRING BREAK
March 20
ADOPTION
618
Introduction
618-20
Rights/Privileges to Adopt and Be Adopted:
Bartholet, FAMILY BONDS: Adoption & the Parental
Screening System, 62-85
M 65-72
Adoption Intermediaries & Their Regulation
635-40
Adoption of M.A.
620-35
Lofton v. D.C.F.S., 358 F.3rd 804 (11th Cir. 2004)
M 73-82
Florida Dept. of Children & Families v. In re matter of
Adoption of X.X.G. and N.R.G., (3rd Dist. Ct. of Appeals,
Florida, 9/22/10)
M 83-94
March 21
The No-$-for-Babies Rule
640-51
Sandel, The Baby Bazaar, The New Republic, 10/20/97
The Consent Requirement: Stanley, Lehr, In re Doe
NCFA Newsletter, On the Benefits of a National
Putative Father Registry
M 95-97
651-81
M 98-99
March 27
Openness & Roots Issues:
Vito
681-88
Rights to Roots
704-09
5
Bartholet, FAMILY BONDS
Adoption & the Sealed Record System, at 53-61
M 100-103
Adoption & Stigma: The Studies, at 174-83
M 104-108
Daly, M and Wilson, M., Preface: Special Issue,
Stepparental Investment, 20 Evolution and
Human Behavior 365-366 (1999)
M 109-110
Bartholet, Guiding Principles for Picking Parents,
27 Harv.Women’s L. J. 323, 325-32
M 111-115
March 28
DEFINING THE CHILD – PARENT RELATIONSHIP
Traditional Concepts:
128-33
Challenges to the Tradition:
Michael H., In re C.K.G., Soo Hoo, ALI Principles
133-68,
171-72,
180-81
April 3
Bartholet, High-Tech Reproduction: IVF and Its Progeny,
In FAMILY BONDS 201-17 (1999)
M 116-124
Bartholet, Modern Child Production: The Marketing of
Genes, Wombs, Embryos, and Babies, in FAMILY BONDS
218-219 (1999)
M 125-129
Cohen, International Regulation of Reproductive
Technologies
M 130-136
Parens & Knowles, Public Policy, Regulation and
Reprogenetics (The Hastings Center Report,
Garrison, NY, July-August 2003)
M 137-142
April 4
Transracial Adoption
688-91
Perry, The Transracial Adoption Controversy, 21 NYU Rev
of Law & Soc Change 33, 34-37, 39, 53-76 (1993-94)
6
M 143-152
Bartholet, NOBODY’S CHILDREN: Transracial Adoption &
The Multiethnic Placement Act (MEPA)
NC 123-40
Bartholet, Commentary: Cultural Stereotypes Can and Do
Die: It’s Time to Move on With Transracial Adoption, 34 J Am
Acad Psych. Law 315 (2006)
M 153-156
HHS (OCR) Letter of Findings, Docket No. 05997026,
HHS Dept. of Appeals Board No. 2023
(Hamilton County, Ohio) (March 31, 2006)
M 157-179
April 10 – 11 GUEST LECTURER: MICHAEL GREGORY,
ASSISTANT CLINICAL PROF. OF LAW, HLS
Materials TBD
EDUCATION: Bullying
EDUCATION: Quality: No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top
April 17
Class, Race, & Historic Injustice: Directions for the Future
413-20
NC 44-55
Bartholet, Wulczyn, Barth & Lederman, Race and Child
Welfare, Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago (2011)
M 180-184
Family Support Programs: Community Partnership (or Alternative
Track, Differential Response Systems), Intensive Early Home
Visitation
NC 141-42,
146-54,
163-68
April 18
DELINQUENCY
Introduction
969-85
Transfer: The “Adultification” of Juvenile Crime
994-997
Disposition: Death Penalty & Life Without Parole (LWOP)
1111-20
Rachel Aviv, No Remorse: Should a teen-ager be given
a life sentence, The New Yorker (January 2, 20120)
Future Directions for the Juvenile Justice System
7
M 185-196
1139-41
1146-56