RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Administrative Burdens in Child Welfare Systems JF RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences FD Russell Sage Foundation SP 214 OP 231 DO 10.7758/RSF.2023.9.5.09 VO 9 IS 5 A1 Edwards, Frank A1 Fong, Kelley A1 Copeland, Victoria A1 Raz, Mical A1 Dettlaff, Alan YR 2023 UL http://www.rsfjournal.org/content/9/5/214.abstract AB Public policy often imposes administrative burdens that constrain people’s ability to access benefits and affirmatively exercise fundamental rights. In this article, we extend the administrative burden framework to argue that the state also places burdens on people who have involuntary contact with coercive state institutions, such as the child welfare system. Just as administrative burdens lock “undeserving,” marginalized populations out of benefits, administrative burdens also lock such populations into coercive intrusion. Drawing on interview data with system-involved mothers and child welfare caseworkers, we show how parents subject to oversight by child protection authorities must overcome substantial learning, compliance, and psychological costs or risk losing a fundamental right: the right to parent their children. We suggest that the burdens of service provision should be loaded onto governments rather than already strained and resource-deprived families.