in a system in which childrens rights are being violated?
One round of court activity is rarely enough. Often, Children’s Rights must return to court several times to make sure that the promise of change is matched with practice. Therefore, systemic changes may sometimes take years to occur. It takes time, persistence and cooperation to end bureaucratic failures, adoption delays, poor practices and continued abuses that have been the usual practices in many failing systems. For instance, serious problems in the Tennessee system were documented for 10 years, but the state failed to act. As we began our investigation at the invitation of many child welfare academics and a public interest advocacy group, the state made some changes which local advocates hoped would bring about improvements, so we decided to give the state time to implement them. The piecemeal efforts, however, failed to bring about necessary fundamental changes and about 18 months ago we were asked to, and did, resume our investigation and efforts in full force.
