For a non-LnC I'm thinking of writing. I have been researching foster care and the like in the 1970s. Have found that that's when permanency planning came in. But I'm trying to find out exactly what would have led to the removal of children from the home in '73 or so. What the process would have been, etc. Could a neighbor have picked up the phone and called the cops on the woman beating her children next door? Would they have been taken away? How significant would the abuse have to be/what would be considered abuse?
What would lead to the siblings being separated once in foster care? Could "violence against women" (defending sister against mother) of a 10-12 year-old boy put him in a different environment than a 5-7 year old girl? Would there be any attempt at keeping the siblings in contact while in the system - letters or phone calls? How many homes might they have expected to go through?
Backstory for adult siblings.
I have trouble tracking the flow in the changing ideas of "what is best." From children being taken from their parents for "neglect" when it's only poverty to child abuse not being reported. From the desire for permanent foster home to an emphasis on re-uniting families. That sort of thing. The family-preservation thing was part of the Chile Welfare Act in 1980, correct? But what was actually practiced, before and after?
Also, what would it take in the late 1980s California to permanently sever legal rights of a grandparent with custody and put the child in foster care? Could a paper be signed to that effect?
For the 80s thing, the series is based around a permanent-foster home (okay, it's based around a holographic rock star, but the foster home is part of it), and I need to know what would lead to a child being placed into a stay-here-until-you-are-18 home in the late 80s.
Any info would be wonderful.
