This sounds like a good idea (from yesterday’s NYT):

In an effort to correct dysfunctional foster care systems, a growing
number of child welfare agencies around the country are reaching
outside their ranks to involve troubled families and the people in
their lives in wrenching decisions about where endangered children
should live.

Some agencies find that by enlisting help from grandparents, church
members, school counselors and sports coaches, they can reach faster,
safer and more lasting decisions that result in fewer children
languishing in foster care. Under the practice, known as team decision
making, a group is assembled within 24 to 48 hours after a state agency
is called into a crisis situation.

 It’s good because it is based on a common-sense, and Confucian, idea that a child’s life is shaped by social networks, emanating outward from immediate family.  In those cases where abuse has not reached a critical level, this may be a way of rebuilding family relationships to provide the care and support a child needs.  I would add, however, that if parents have been overly abusive – if there has been physical or sexual assault – then there should also be a point beyond which they can no longer be involved in decisions about the child’s care.  It would be horrible to intervene in this manner but then allow abuse to continue.

      I especially like the idea of enlisting the participation of other family members, neighbors, friends, etc.  In a group situation like that alternative means of caring for the child, something that did not wrench him or her out of the immediate community, might be found.   Our lives are given meaning by the social roles we assume.  If a parent in trouble can be helped by others to see how to perform parental duties, then he or she might grow into that role.  Again, it needs to be monitored carefully.  But it sounds like a constructive possibility for bolstering the web of social relationships that every individual needs.