Required Texts (all available at the Brown bookstore in paperback)

Parent, Turning Stones
Humes, No Matter How Loud I Shout
Luker, Dubious Conception
Gibbons, Ellen Foste
Donis, The Broken Cord
Gelles, The Book of David

Several additional readings will be available in a photocopied reader; others will be provided as handouts or are already available electronically.

Requirements & Grading:

This is a service-learning course, designed with the expectation that each student will work at least a few hours a week in one of the state agencies that administers policies to children: the Family Court (through the Attorney General, Public Defender, or the Court Appointed Special Advocates for Children); the Department of Children, Youth and Families; or the Rhode Island Training School. There will be discussion sections devoted exclusively to the service-learning issues, and all students will be expected to keep a journal (both for general reflections and for some assigned questions).

The course requirements depend on the number of hours per week in the community. There are three primary grading components: (1) class attendance and participation (including Thursday 5PM sections), (2) keeping a journal (including three required essays), and (3) a final assessment or project (to be arranged during the semester). Those with placements requiring a less intensive time commitment (1-3 hours per week) will also take an early final exam, assigned November 16.

Calculation of final grade:
For those not taking the final exam: attendance (10%), journal (40%), and final project (50%).
for those taking the final exam (those with less intensive service projects): attendance (100/6), journal (3011/6), final project (200/6), final exam (40%).

Office Hours (at the Taubman Center; 67 George Street)
Monday and Thursday 1:30-3
Tuesday 11- 12:30; Friday afternoon by appointment


1. The Policy Line between Adolescence and Adulthood

A. Juvenile Courts and Juvenile Justice

"The Zombie Zone," Ch. 2 in Turning Stones. Parent is an emergency worker for child protective services. The legal authority to hold children in protective custody in Rhode Island is set forth in Title 40, Chapter 11 of Rhode Island's General Laws. Find 40-11-5 in the Code section of Rhode Island State Law on Lexis.

Humes, No Matter How Loud I Shout (9/14 & 9/16)

Alex Kotlowitz, "The Unprotected," New Yorker (February 8, 1999) [handout]; Fox Butterfield, "With Juvenile Courts in Chaos, Critics Propose Their Demise," New York Times (July 21, 1997); Fox Butterfield, "Fewer Options or Safeguards in City's Juvenile Courts," New York Times (July 22, 1997). (9/2 1)

Journal essay: evaluate Rhode Island's procedure for waiver of jurisdiction or certification hearing. R.I. Gen. Laws 14-1-7. Is this a sensible way to approach the issue, or could this policy be improved?

Prosser and Stanger, "Children in Dire Straits: How Do We Know Whether We are Progressing," Ch. 24 in Indicators of Children's Well-Being (1997).(9/23) [Handout]

B. Teen pregnancy, statutory rape, and the age of consent

Luker, Dubious Distinctions (9/28 & 9/30)

Mike Males, "Poverty, Rape, Adult/Teen Sex: Why ’Pregnancy Prevention· Programs Don't Work," Phi Delta Kappan(January 1994)(10/5)*

C. Voting

Wendell W. Cultice, Youth's Battle for the Ballot: A History of Voting Age in America (Greenwood, 1992), excerpts (10/7)*

Consider the proposal in South Australia to lower the voting age to 16.

D. Defining childhood through fiction

Ellen Fost (10/12)
E. The Rights Perspective

A. Parental Rights

Parental Rights Amendment [www.ofthepeople.org]; See also, HR 1946 (Parental Rights and Responsibilities Act of 1995) House Subcommittee hearings held Oct. 26, 1995.

Journal essay: after considering the position of parental rights groups, sketch out and defend your own conception of parental rights. In other words, what do you think should be recognized as parents' rights, and why?

Mary Leonard, "Laws Holding Parents Liable Gaining Ground," Boston Globe (April 28,1999)(10/14)

Michael Doris, The Broken Cord (10/19)

Barbara Bennett Woodhouse, "Poor Mothers, Poor Babies: Law, Medicine, and Crack," Ch. 7 in Child, Parent and State (Temple University Press 1994)(10/21)*

B. Students' Rights (10/26)

"Goss v. Lopez: The Principle of the Thing," part VII in Mnookin, In the Interest of Children [Rock Reserve for PP 184]

C. Children's Rights (10/28)

Gareth B. Mathews, "Children's Rights," Ch. 6 in The Philosophy of Childhood(Harvard University Press, 1994)*

I. Child Protective Services and the Role of the State

A. Remaining chapters in Turning Stones

Chs. 1, 3, 4 and two articles on foster care (11/4)

Rachel Swams, "For Children, Another Night on Office Cots," New York Times (November 28, 1997); Celia Dugger, "Foster Care from Birth: Tom Between 2 Families," New York Times (July 26, 1994); Celia Dugger, "Escaping Abuse but Not Neglect: Children Languish in Foster Care," New York Times (July 27, 1994)
Chs. 5-8 in Turning Stones (11/9)

Mini-case: the newspaper editor's dilemma. "A local mother believes the state has unfairly removed her ten-year-old child from her home. She offers to share the complete case file with your reporter so that he can write a full account of what happened. Statutes forbid the release of such information or its publication. What do you do?" (From Brill's Content, September 1999).

Read the resulting story: Steve Varnum, "Defending Herself, Mother Fights for Her Child," Concord [N.H.] Monitor(June 13, 1999),

Journal essay: should Family Court in Rhode Island be open to the public? If possible, draw on experiences with Family Court. Either way, consider the pros and cons while deciding the appropriate policy.

B. Gelles, The Book of David (11/11 & 11/ 16)

Background WWW research on the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 (Public Law 105-89) and HHS Administration for Children and Families (ACF) regulations to implement provisions of the Act.

C. DeShangy v. Winnebago Coun (11/23)

D. Conclusion

Oral presentations about the service component (11/30 & 12/2) Final class: evaluations (12/7)