In late May, the BC Law Institute marked the end of its Modernizing the Child, Family and Community Service Act Project by releasing two new publications.

The Report on Modernizing the Child, Family and Community Service Act takes a focused look at British Columbia’s child-protection statute and makes 39 recommendations for its reform. These recommendations provide a detailed blueprint for modernizing the act’s language, enhancing its procedures and safeguards, and supporting children’s rights.

The Study Paper on Youth Aging into the Community contains comparative legal research on how jurisdictions support young people who were, as children, in the care of the child-protection system as they now come of age as adults. It compares British Columbia’s approach of using mainly ad hoc policies and programs with the co-ordinated legislative frameworks found in Australia, England, New Zealand, and the United States.

BCLI thanks the Law Foundation of BC for supporting this project, the members of the Child Protection Project Committee for assisting BCLI in developing its recommendations, and respondents to the project’s public consultation. Copies of the report and study paper are freely available at bcli.org.