Recent developments in child welfare in the United States can be seen
as enactments of state paternalism toward families. New programs and p
rocedures in the areas of foster care and ''in-home ''family services
aim to reinforce parents' and childrens' rights, but these rights are
typically framed as protections against bureaucratic abuse rather than
as rights to basic material resources. The prevailing cultural assump
tion toward child welfare in the United States is that the government
should not in family life unless there is legal evidence of functional
failure. Families are still seen as autonomous units that essentially
determine their own fates. This ideology serves to limit the public a
nd political perception of more preventive and developmental options.