Documenting Lives: The Material And Social Life of the Case File in the United States Foster Care System

Stubbs, Matilda

doi:https://doi.org/10.21985/n2-6aq5-j307

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Documenting Lives: The Material And Social Life of the Case File in the United States Foster Care System

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In the United States there is little material culture that foster youth share in common while in state custody. Removed from alleged circumstances of abuse or neglect, these young people frequently relocate between residential care settings like group homes, institutional treatment centers, or single family foster homes. Due to perpetual circulation through the care system, these dependent youth may have no “things” to call their own, except for one continuous object that assumes the leading role in this child welfare context, that is “their” case file. By design, this dossier pertains to a specific subject it follows and records. In this way, the case file serves as a documentary shadow while youth navigate through this system. For administrators, social workers, and case managers, this kind of file informs much of the daily rounds, in ways that are similar and different to other participants in this system like youth, families, and foster parents. This same assemblage of documents is used in a variety of settings, including many examined in this dissertation. From staffings, case reviews, and court hearings, this file serves as a mediatory device through which all case information is communicated. Whether due to youth movement within the care system, to discussions in case management meetings, or treatment in therapy sessions, the case file stands as the reference point within these social encounters, facilitating the intermingling of people and paper with one another. Through my research on the material and social life of the case file I discovered this so-called ‘case file’ is often never actually one individual physical file, but rather a series of binders, folders, or boxes that collectively comprise the case record. Materially, any given case record may also exist in multiple locations, in various forms of media, accessible to a variety of social actors. And, unlike other organizational systems that use administrative technologies like recordkeeping and filing, in foster care systems nationwide, the case file remains for the most part, materialized on hard copies of paper, despite our present digital era. Over its bureaucratic life course, this case-related storage device will contain a multitude of smaller graphic artifacts like consent forms, treatment plans, educational and medical records, as well as the occasional photo or identification document like a birth certificate or Social Security Card. And, this child welfare case record cannot exist without a partnering legal case record or file, from the local dependency court system. The artifactual-ethnography that I conducted for my thesis research interrogates this documentary object – the case file – in order to expand understandings of the anthropology of social service administration and the sociomaterial lives and livelihoods that depend upon it in the context of American state foster care programs. I argue that despite the commonly held perspective that the caseworker-client relationship focuses on the work of building and strengthening ties with foster youth and families, social work in child welfare practice privileges documentation practices above all else, to guarantee compliance and record accountability of officials and service organizations. While recordkeeping measures are certainly necessary for social service administration, the sheer volume of and disproportionate concentration on paperwork diverts attention away from the effectiveness of state interventions into private family life. As the outcomes of youth during and after periods of state custody remain grim and troubling, few resources are afforded to alleviate the social issues that brought them under the gaze of the child welfare system in the first place – usually poverty, domestic violence, and social marginalization. Despite good intentions, these street-level bureaucrats are rule enforcers and paper pushers. I contend that paperwork and meetings in the foster care system are important forms of governmentality - a means through which the state comes into being. This project goes beyond critiquing the inefficiencies of officials and state fosterage practices and rather, interrogates what happens when documents (paper, digital, or otherwise) become our informants. From taking notes by hand or computer, to checking a box, signing on the dotted line, or while sending an e-mail, fax, or letter, it quickly becomes apparent that paperwork – as a process and a product – is present at every turn in social work. Such recordkeeping tracks youth through the system as it documents their behavior, diagnoses, medication, and transgressions, but also traces the administrative movement of officials, information, money, and power. This ethnography draws on five years of fieldwork among case managers, file clerks, administrators, therapists, and other care staff in one congregate care setting – a residential treatment center for youth in Illinois. This longitudinal fieldwork was supplemented by observations of hearings and waiting areas in two dependency court systems in California, where I interacted with judges, attorneys, and other legal personnel. I also interviewed foster parents and former foster youth about their experiences in these settings as well as their reactions to officials and paperwork surrounding case management activities. My project integrates archival studies on bureaucracies and recordkeeping to anthropological theories on the state, documents, and kinship. The methods of collecting data included participant observation, semi-structured and open-ended interviews, and archival research to examine how the case file is used to plan, implement, and measure programs and policies at various levels of state intervention. I demonstrate how procedural ethnography can be used to inform the design or evaluation of recordkeeping activity. I draw on my observations of and participation with this paperwork, including examinations of certain case management documents, and collected narrative reflections from social actors who interact with these organizational artifacts – officials, families, and former foster youth. I report on several processes that staff adapted to manage paperwork expectations, and describe reactions from these interlocutors to these augmentations of procedure and documents. These findings demonstrate the power of such recording objects and technologies to mediate existing regulatory ambiguities as well as open or close spaces for negotiation, even deviation. I conclude with implications of these findings and suggestions for moving forward to assuage the challenges that face foster youth and the adults that care for them.

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