chevron-down Created with Sketch Beta.

    The End TPR Initiative

    The End TPR initiative serves as a centralized resource for communication and collaboration among impacted families, attorneys, social workers, and advocates across jurisdictions who are focused on examining and challenging the concept of involuntarily terminating parental rights (TPR) under law. This webpage will provide access to true narratives and first-hand accounts of parents, youth, and families who have experienced TPR, practice support, policy resources, research and data and learning opportunities for advocates seeking support in their efforts to challenge TPR.

    End TPR Gatherings (Via Zoom)

    Articles & Resources

    The Impact of the Adoption and Safe Families Act on Children of Incarcerated Parents

    This article presents an overview of state efforts to provide a mechanism by which parental rights may be reinstated and explores court responses to individual requests to recreate parent-child relationships after TPR. It outlines arguments related to res judicata and equal protection that may be used by parents when the court denies standing and proposes a method of temporarily terminating parental rights which ensures that children do not exit the foster care system without legal parents and discusses situations when the option may be most appropriate.

    Adoption Cannot be Reformed

    Co-author Ashley Albert surrendered her parental rights to her two youngest children. She shares her story of ostensibly "voluntary" surrender, which was anything but voluntary. This Article goes on to address the practice of permanently severing the legal bonds between a parent and a child, then the State's "replacement" of those bonds with new ones via formalized adoption. It informs readers of the historical background behind modern adoption, argues that adoption must be addressed separately from the family regulation system, and describes the specific harms caused by adoption today.

    The Cumulative Prevalence of Termination of Parental Rights for U.S. Children, 2000–2016

    Recent research has used synthetic cohort life tables to show that having a Child Protective Services investigation, experiencing confirmed maltreatment, and being placed in foster care are more common for American children than would be expected based on daily or annual rates for these events. This article extends this literature by using synthetic cohort life tables and data from the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System to generate the first cumulative prevalence estimates of termination of parental rights.

    Resurrecting Parents of Legal Orphans: Un-Terminating Parental Rights

    This article presents an overview of state efforts to provide a mechanism by which parental rights may be reinstated and explores court responses to individual requests to recreate parent-child relationships after TPR. It outlines arguments related to res judicata and equal protection that may be used by parents when the court denies standing and proposes a method of temporarily terminating parental rights which ensures that children do not exit the foster care system without legal parents and discusses situations when the option may be most appropriate.