tion, carried on by skilled agents, through personal investigation, and with due regard to the religious faith of the child." Adequate visitation must follow. (4) For the institutions for temporary care of children until placed out and for those who cannot be placed in homes, the cottage system approximating family life for the child is advocated. (5) Caring for dependent children should be restricted to those organizations which have incorporated in a state. (6) State inspection is necessary if the state is to do its duty by its wards, no matter whether the child be cared for by a private or public organization. This inspection must be by trained agents. (7) The education of dependent children should be supervised by a state agency to make sure that dependent children receive as good educational advantages as other children. (8) Every child-caring agency should keep careful and accurate records of the child's parents and its near relatives. Each year the circumstances of those children whose parents have not given. up their legal guardianship should be ascertained and recorded. The results of an investigation of the condition of each child should be carefully kept. Only on the basis of records resulting from careful and frequent investigation of all the facts bearing upon the welfare of the child and the circumstances of those legally responsible for the care of the child can proper care be given these wards. (9) Careful medical examinations of the children should be made often enough that any defects may be corrected. Suitable instruction in health and hygiene should be given them. (10) Restrictive legislation by states to prevent the bringing in of dependent children from other states is deprecated. (11) A national voluntary organization interested in childhelping is desirable, to standardize methods of caring for children and to assist in securing the passage of proper legislation in each state. (12) The conference urged the establishment of the Federal Children's Bureau.1 These standards have helped educate those dealing with the care of dependent children. The Federal Children's Bureau was established and has been of the greatest value not only in stimulating interest in the care of dependent children, but also in making studies concerning the causes of infant mortality, of dependency and of delinquency. 1Charities, Vol. XXI, pp. 987-990. STANDARDS FOR THE CARE OF DEPENDENT CHILDREN Out of the experience of caring for dependent children certain general principles have been evolved which the Children's Bureau has published as the normal standards for such care. I. In general for all children needing special care there are certain fundamental rights. These are "normal home life, opportunities for education, recreation, vocational preparation for life, and moral, religious, and physical development in harmony with American ideals and the educational and spiritual agencies by which these rights of the child are normally safeguarded.” 1 2. The state has the ultimate responsibility for children who are in need of special care by reason of unfortunate home conditions, physical, or mental handicap or delinquency. While private organizations may undertake to discharge this responsibility of the state, they must do so under the supervision of that ultimate authority. 3. In the discharge of that responsibility, the state must see to it that the neglected or dependent child is provided normal home life. Such a home demands primarily the basis of an adequate income. It must also furnish the proper guidance in order that the child's personality may be developed to usefulness. 4. When mothers are competent to care for their own children, the state must see to it that the home is not broken up merely for poverty. An income must be provided by the state in the absence of any other resource sufficient to enable the mother to maintain her children suitably in her own home, and without resorting to such outside employment as will deny her children proper care and oversight. 5. A state supervisory body like a State Board of Control or a State Board of Charities should be charged with the responsibility for the regular inspection and licensing of every institution, agency, or association incorporated or otherwise which receives or cares for mothers with children or children who are dependent or without suitable parental care. It should have authority to revoke such licenses for cause, and to require reports and prescribe forms for reports. This inspection must be in the hands of people who are acquainted with the standards of proper care and are skilful in securing the adoption of such standards. 6. When the welfare of the child demands it, he should be removed 'Minimum Standards of Child Welfare, Children's Bureau, Washington, 1919, from his home, but only when the home cannot be made a fit place for the child. He should not be permanently removed from home. unless other than conditions of poverty affect the home. If the child is removed temporarily until the home can be reconstructed, he should then be returned. 7. Children who must be removed from their homes should be provided home life as nearly normal as possible to safeguard their health and to insure for them the fundamental rights of childhood named above, except for disabled and defective children. 8. In placing children, the following principles should be observed: a. In seeking a temporary foster home for a child consideration should be given to many circumstances, among them health, mentality, character, family history, reputation among neighbors, ability to furnish adequate moral and spiritual training, experience, education, income, environment of the family, and sympathetic attitude toward the child. Usually they should be families of the same religion as the child's parents. b. The child, before being placed in other than a temporary foster home, should be carefully examined as to his health, mentality, so far as possible his character, and the history of his family. Any physical defects and any diseases should be corrected before placing. If the child has congenital syphilis or has a history of mental defect in the family, that certainly should be made known to the foster parents. c. Complete records must be had of the child to understand his heredity and personality, and his development while under the care of the agency. d. Particular attention should be given to the careful placing of defective children, or those who require care adapted to their peculiar needs. e. A complete record of each foster home should be kept giving the information on which approval was based, together with entries showing the contacts of the supervising agents with the family after placing, and stating the condition and care of the child. In this way special abilities in the families will be developed and conserved for children and if another child is later placed in the family, reinvestigation need not be so thorough. f. Supervision of the children placed out must be frequent enough by properly qualified and well-trained agents to make sure that the fundamental rights of the child are being cared for. It has been sug gested that periodical physical examinations of the children so placed should be made. g. Where children are boarded out the investigation must be no less careful and the foster parents must be trained for their task. h. Transfer of the legal guardianship of the child should not be permitted without the consent of the proper state department or court of proper jurisdiction. i. In case of adoption the court should make a full inquiry into all the facts connected with the family and the child before awarding the child custody. 9. Children should not remain in institutions for dependents any longer than is necessary to have them properly placed. The children who are there should have their rights safeguarded as far as that can be done in an institution. They should be carefully studied frequently to ascertain whether they should return to their own homes, be placed out, or be transferred to institutions better suited to their needs. So long as they are in the institutions efforts should be made to see that as nearly a normal family life as possible is provided for them.1 TOPICS FOR REPORTS 1. Functions of State Board in the Care of Dependent Children. Williams, "State Supervision of Agencies and Institutions," Standards of Child Welfare, Children's Bureau Publication, No. 60, Washington, 1919, p. 313. 2 Japan's Treatment of Dependent Children. Namaye, "Child Welfare Work in Japan," ibid., p. 321. 3. Principles of the Care of Dependent Children. Hart, "The Conclusions of the White House Conference-Ten Years After," ibid., p. 339. 4. The Care of Dependent Children under a County Board. Taylor, Proceedings, National Conference of Social Work, 1920, p. 36. 'The author is indebted for the main points in the discussion above to the publication of the Children's Bureau already cited. See op. cit., pp. 10-12. CHAPTER XXII per year 32,000 DEPENDENT CHILDREN: CHILDREN BORN OUT THE HE extent of the problem of illegitimacy has been indicated in a previous chapter. With 32,000 white children in this country born of unmarried mothers every year,1 with a public sentiment contemning the innocent child, and with laws which in most states place almost the entire burden of support and practically the entire disgrace upon the mother, we have a problem which demands the attention of students of society. The ramifications of illegitimacy are many. It flouts morals and is a factor in crime. Since most mothers of illegitimate children are mentally defective, we are face to face with the proper care of defective girls. Seeing that the unmarried mother is so handicapped both by her child and by her shame that it is difficult for her to make a living, illegitimacy is also a factor in dependency.3 Lecky's words concerning the prostitute, whom he describes as "the eternal priestess of humanity, blasted for the sins of the people," and who, he says further, "is scorned and insulted as the vilest of her sex," and who is "the perpetual symbol of the degradation and sinfulness of man" might be applied, in view of the treatment accorded her in most civilized countries, to the unmarried mother. For in some cases the unmarried mother is the victim of seduction, giving her misplaced affection with all the devotion of innocence, instead of a woman Illegitimacy as a Child-Welfare Problem, Part I, Children's Bureau Publication, No. 66, Washington, 1920; see also Part II, Washington, 1921, the most important study thus far made in the United States. In Boston 1 out of every 23 births and in Massachusetts I in 44 is illegitimate. Considering together the mental condition of the parents and grandparents, 19 per cent of the 2,178 children (in Boston) had a heritage in which there was known to be insanity, feeble-mindedness, or other subnormal or abnormal mental condition or probable feeble-mindedness, or_subnormality." Illegitimacy as a Child-Welfare Problem, Part II, Children's Bureau Publication, No. 75, Washington, 1921, p. 40. The best measure yet available of the burden of dependency caused by illegitimacy is that stated in the recent study of the problem in Boston. Of the cases handled by the child-caring and child-protecting agencies in Boston in 1914, 13 per cent were children born out of wedlock, costing the agencies $124,000 a year. Ibid., p. 41. *Lecky, History of European Morals, New York, 1883, Vol. II, p. 283. |