Child protective service workers share their "secret truths that haunt"

A growing sentiment among experts that many such removals hurt more than help has brought this tension to the fore.

Reformers and abolitionists are convening conversations between caseworkers and the families torn apart by CPS .

A full 9 percent of Black children, and 11 percent of Indigenous children, spend time in foster care.

Kempe Center is convening truth-telling circles in three communities in three states.

The goal is to transform child welfare systems so that fewer children enter foster care.

Some experts are wary of asking families to relive their worst moments.

One former caseworker says racial bias plays a huge role in family separation.

Kempe organizers had hoped that those joining their sessions would come to a common understanding.

So far, the participants who work in the system have struggled to get on the same page, Merkel-Holguin says.

Local reform, she notes, may be the more promising place to start.