Critics say the policies of child welfare agencies, rather than acting for the benefit of children, in many cases harm families, by separating parent from child, and creating legal barriers for families to reunite.
According to the Children’s Defense Fund, every two minutes a child is removed from his or her home. There are now more than 400,000 children in foster care.
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Samantha Maria Mungai is now raising a two-year-old in Kansas, which makes advocates wonder why Missouri s decided last year she was unable to parent her oldest child, ultimately allowing another, white family to adopt the little girl.
Samantha Mungai, an immigrant from Kenya, left her child alone while she went to work in July of 2017. This is the story of what participants in this case, and those who work in the system, say that parents who are Black, low income, or immigrants can face as they try to be reunited with their kids.
Samantha Maria Mungai, 26, knows she made a mistake the night she left her four-year-old daughter alone in their Gladstone, Missouri, apartment to go to work the night of July 13, 2017, resulting in a court decision that found her guilty of negligence.