| part of Progressive era social reform, legislation establishing the Children's Bureau was signed by President William Howard Taft on April 9, 1912. The Bureau was given an initial appropriation of ;The agency became the primary source of information concerning the circumstances of children living in the United States. Bureau chiefs Julia Lathrop (1912-21), Grace Abbott (1921-1934), and Katharine Lenroot (1934-1951), and their supporters held that "a right to childhood" relied on the idealized two parent family where the father worked as the sole breadwinner and the mother devoted her full attention to the household. The Bureau judged that children "denied" this circumstance were in "special need" and dependent upon society rather than their parents for support and guidance. The agency's work served as a blueprint upon which public child welfare policy developed throughout this century. However, Bureau efforts on behalf of children had limited results. Both the Children's Bureau's child welfare policy, and that proposed by its critics, promoted ideals of individualism, women s dependency, and gave individual states the primary control over social welfare programs. Such strategy left little room to develop innovative solutions and often placed the "best" interests of children after those of their parents and community.;Despite its limitations, during this period the Children's Bureau was transformed from an agency limited to research and promotion to an administrator in the American "semi-welfare" state with an annual appropriation of almost... |
