Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2019
Abstract
Due to the opioid use epidemic and an overwhelmed public child protection system, minor guardianship is an increasingly important tool for relative caregivers seeking to obtain legal authority regarding the children who come into their care because of a parent’s crisis. Yet minor guardianship originated in colonial law for an entirely different purpose: to protect legal orphans who had inherited property. Today’s guardianship laws are still based on this “orphan model” which does not fit today’s reality. This Article is the first to analyze how these outdated guardianship laws are being used as a form of “private child protection” and to propose changes aimed to serve the needs and interests of families in crisis.
Despite its central role in helping families address the care of children today, the use of minor guardianship for child protection has received remarkably little scholarly examination. This Article aims to fill that gap in three ways. First, it traces the transformation of minor guardianship from a probate tool used to protect orphans’ property interests to its contemporary use as a way to keep children out of foster care and instead address their care within the family. Second, the Article analyzes the implications for children, parents, and relative caregivers of guardianship’s use for private child protection. While families avoid the loss of control and other common problems that accompany involvement in the public child welfare system, family members cannot take advantage of the services and supports that the system can provide. Third, I outline the specific measures that states can and should enact to unlink minor guardianship laws from the “orphan model” and rework them to serve the interests of families in crisis and to reflect the broader policy goals of child protection, including preserving kinship ties.
Publication Title
Connecticut Public Interest Law Journal
Volume
18
Issue
2
Article Number
1117
First Page
269
Last Page
356
Suggested Bluebook Citation
"Keeping It in the Family: Minor Guardianship As Private Child Protection," 18 Conn. Pub. Int. L. J. 269 (2019).