Orwellian intrusion into home and family
By Robert Holland
WASHINGTON TIMES

In a postindustrial society tending more to collectivism than
individualism, parents are no longer honored figures. Presuming all
parents potential abusers, the nanny state now sends out swarms of
"experts" to monitor the rearing of America's children.

The ultimate social intervention -- just one short step from state
licensing of parents -- entails nabbing first-time parents when their
newborns are still in the hospital nursery. The idea is that agents of
social uplift will go into private homes to "train" these parents for
up to 50 visits annually per family. Expectant parents are enlisted
by being asked to sign permission forms at the hospital, where
amid all the excitement of a first birth they may not be aware of
the implications for their privacy and parental rights.

Information that the agents collect from families will be put into a
nationwide computerized system called the Program Information
Management System (PIMS), which will contain medical and
psychological entries and observations on family relationships.

PIMS' tracking of a newborn's development could easily be linked
with other preschool and public-school databanks currently being
expanded. Eventually, the information in a comprehensive,
permanent record could be shared with employers when an
individual applies for a job.

Presented as a way to prevent child abuse, this movement has far
broader implications. As Rep. Henry Hyde, Illinois Republican,
observes: "This is Big Brother intervention as we have never seen
it before. It is a case of the 'village' mentality run wild. American
have never experienced such intrusion in their family lives."

The lead organization is the Chicago-based National Committee to
Prevent Child Abuse (NCPCA). In a statement on their Website
(www.childabuse.org), NCPCA leaders declare: "Parenting is too
often a responsibility that cannot be performed alone. It is
imperative for communities to support overburdened families with
resources so that parents can provide their children with a safe and
supportive environment."

That echoes an assertion by first lady Hillary Clinton at a White
House child-care conference that parents may mean well but do
not necessarily know what's best for their children. On Oct. 1,
1997, The Washington Post quoted her as saying the following in
support of public child care: "A lot of times they [the parents]
don't know what is quality. If somebody's nice to them, it doesn't
matter that they don't know the difference between caring for a 1-
year-old or a 4-year-old."

Mrs. Clinton and her Children's Defense Fund allies have
expropriated the African proverb, "It takes a village to rear a
child," in an attempt to justify sweeping intervention in family life.
The key program is the NCPCA's Healthy Families America
(HFA). It was launched in 1992 in partnership with the Ronald
McDonald House Charities and the Freddie Mac Corporation, but
as of Congress' 1997 reauthorization of the Adoption and Safe
Families Act, the program has picked up major federal funding to
go with backing from several left-wing foundations (such as Annie
E. Casey, Rand and Carnegie). The federal act expanded Family
Preservation and Support Services with $275 million for fiscal
1999, $295 million for fiscal 2000, and $305 million for fiscal
2001.

"Unfortunately," Mr. Hyde notes, "most members of Congress
were not aware of the inherent dangers in this program. Preventing
child abuse is admirable and removing children from homes where
abuse is indicated is necessary. However, using Family
Preservation and Support Services to investigate every first-time
parent in America in an effort to identify the troubled ones exceeds
any authority previously given to any government agency."

HFA is rendered more difficult to follow by being given different
names in virtually all the 40 states in which it operates to date. For
instance, in Georgia, it's called "First Steps"; in California it's
"Welcome Home Baby" or "Safe and Healthy Families"; and in
Hawaii it's "Healthy Start." In Virginia, the program is embodied
in the "Healthy Families Initiative," which has operated mostly in
the Fairfax and Hampton Roads areas, with General Assembly
support of more than $1 million.

As with the related federal Goals 2000, HFA often carries the label
"voluntary" -- yet the NCPCA describes its goal as providing
"universal home visitation for all new parents and intensive
services for families most in need." It calls for coordinating the
work of paraprofessionals and volunteer home-visitors with
professionals such as social workers, public-health nurses, and
guidance counselors. Critics charge that parents who decide they
want out of the visitations could be reported to Child Protective
Services and possibly even lose their child to state custody.

While "high-risk" families are to receive more intensive and
longer-term scrutiny under HFA than other parents, definitions of
"high-risk" are elastic. Almost any family could be deemed high-
risk, with risk factors like the following: "inadequate" income;
inability of parent to cope with inappropriate child behavior (in the
parent-trainer's opinion); overindulgence or "spoiling" by a parent;
low functioning of parent due to various conditions, including
being "too heavy"; and negative reactions, such as "getting angry"
about a child's actions. Of course, social-service agents have an
incentive to identify as many "at-risk" parents as they can, because
that increases their budgets.

What's going on in the guise of preventing child abuse dovetails
with massive new tracking ventures by the U.S. Department of
Education's research arm, the National Center for Education
Statistics (NCES). In the year 2000, for example, the Early
Childhood Longitudinal Study will begin following thousands of
newborns through their 6th birthdays. Federal investigators will
use birth certificates to collect the names of newborns, and when
the infants are 9 months old federal "assessors" will visit their
homes (according to the Dec. 16 issue of Education Week) --
there to "interview their parents, observe parents and children at
play, and evaluate the infants' growth and development."

Soon there may be a governmental presence in every home. All
this will undermine the American family, not strengthen it.

Robert Holland is a columnist and opinion page editor with the
Richmond Times-Dispatch.