Don Lasch: “When the Welfare People Come:” Race and Class in the US Child Protection System

“When the Welfare People Come” was written from the perspective of an attorney, Don Lash, specializing in education law with the New York City Administration for Children’s Services (ACS). The book reveals the broken nature of the US child welfare system through historical context, statistics, anecdotal evidence, political and racial biases, and stories of personal experiences. As a highly critical analysis, the book finds little in the current welfare system to praise. The chronic issues of the child welfare system are largely contributed to capitalism, racial and class biases, as well as bureaucratic interests. …