| Course | MSW 513 Policy II: Soc Pol & Soc Just |
|---|---|
| Week | 1 |
| Paper type | Discussion post |
| Length | About 430 words |
| Format | Discussion post with APA 7 citations |
| School | Chamberlain University |
| Program | Master of Social Work (MSW) |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for MSW 513 Week 1
Week 1 Discussion: Initial Post
When a Bedroom Rule Decides Who Gets Paid to Raise a Grandchild: Separating the Hardship of Kinship Care From the Injustice of One State Licensing Standard, Who Wrote It and Where I Stand
Hardship or Injustice
D., 61, took in two grandchildren, ages 4 and 9, the night they were removed from their parent's apartment. Raising children at 61 on a fixed income is hard, and some of that hardship would exist under any rule. What I want to separate out is the part that exists because of one rule. Our state applies the same foster home licensing standard to grandparents as to strangers, including a requirement that each child have a bed in a bedroom of at least 50 square feet, apart from adults once over age 5. D.'s apartment has two bedrooms. The 9-year-old shares one with the 4-year-old, which passes; D. sleeps in the other. The home study flagged that the older child will turn 10 next spring and the rule then asks for separate rooms by sex for children of different sexes. D. stopped the licensing process.
The Rule and Who Set It
The standard sits in the state's administrative code for foster family homes, set by the state child welfare department's licensing unit. It is not required by federal law. Federal law already let states waive non-safety standards for relatives one family at a time, and since November 2023 a federal rule has let states write a separate licensing standard for relatives and kin while still claiming federal foster care money (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2023). The bedroom rule is a choice our state has not revisited.
Who Carries the Cost
Because D. is unlicensed, the household receives a child-only cash grant rather than the foster care maintenance payment a licensed home receives, a gap that states have tried to patch with services rather than closing outright (Dorch et al., 2008). The children carry the difference in shoes, school trips and a grandparent who now works weekend shifts.
Where I Stand
I am placed at a kinship navigator program. I have filled in home study forms and watched this one stop three families. That is why I picked it, and it is also why I may see only the families it stops.
A Question for the Thread
Some of you will argue that a uniform standard protects children equally. If a separate kin standard is allowed, which parts of the bedroom rule would you keep for relatives, and why those?
References
Dorch, E., Mumpower, J., & Jochnowitz, L. (2008). The cost and benefits of cash and services to kinship caregivers. Social Work in Public Health, 23(6), 55-73. https://doi.org/10.1080/19371910802059601
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2023). Separate licensing or approval standards for relative or kinship foster family homes (Final rule, 88 FR 66700). Federal Register.
What the MSW 513 Week 1 assignment asks for
The opening discussion asks you to take a social problem and pull apart two things that usually arrive together. One is hardship, the going without that would exist under any arrangement. The other is injustice, the going without that exists because a rule was written one way when it could have been written another. Pick an issue narrow enough that a decision sits inside it, such as an eligibility screen or a licensing standard, rather than inequality in general. Name the rule, the body that set it and the people who carry its cost. Say where you stand, since most students choose an issue they have watched from a desk. Justice concepts belong in the post only where they fit this issue. End on a question a classmate could answer from a different position.
Inside the MSW 513 Week 1 example
The post opens with D., 61, who took in two grandchildren the night of their removal, and concedes at once that money and age would make that hard under any rule. It then isolates one standard: the state's foster home bedroom measurement, applied to grandparents as it is to unrelated applicants. The second section names the state licensing unit as its author and points out that a 2023 federal rule lets states write a separate kin standard, so the rule is a choice. A third section follows the cost to the household, a child-only grant in place of a maintenance payment, citing Dorch et al. (2008) on states patching the gap with services. The writer then admits a navigator placement may show only families the rule stopped. The closing question asks which parts of the rule a classmate would keep for relatives.
Where the points sit in the MSW 513 Week 1 rubric
The distinction itself earns the bulk of the marks in this opening post. Faculty look for a rule that could be written differently and for the body with power to change it, named rather than gestured at. A post that names the issue but leaves its author vague loses ground quickly. Points also follow the cost: who goes without, in what form, and whether the writer can say how the rule produces that cost. Declaring your own position counts, because a reader needs to know whether you are reporting what you saw or what you read. One or two sources should do real work, either establishing the rule or showing its effect, and every one needs an APA entry. Length limits apply, and the closing question is graded for whether it invites disagreement rather than agreement.
MSW 513 Week 1 help from the desk
A common slip is spending most of the post defining distributive and procedural justice, then reaching an issue in the last lines. Another is choosing something so large, such as poverty or racism in general, that no rule or decision maker can be named. Some posts describe a group as though every member wanted the same thing, which a reply can easily challenge. Others cite a source at the end of a paragraph it does not support. If your issue is different, perhaps a housing voucher rule, a school discipline code or a benefit asset test, the same order works: the hardship, the rule, its author, the cost and your position. A model post written for your own issue would follow that order, keep the justice concept tied to the rule and finish with a question classmates can push back on.
Get a MSW-513 Week 1 example written to your instructions
Send the Week 1 prompt from your classroom along with the issue you are thinking of staking out, and a custom example is written to that prompt and returned inside 24 to 48 hours. The first one is free. Which side of the rule you come down on is yours to argue.
More MSW 513 papers and MSW samples
- MSW 513 Week 2: Policy Analysis
- MSW 513 Week 3: Policy Brief
- MSW 513 Week 4: Stakeholder Analysis
- MSW 513 Week 5: Legislative Testimony Draft
- MSW 513 Week 6: Discussion Post
- MSW 513 Week 7: Advocacy Plan
- MSW 513 Week 8: Policy Change Presentation
- MSW 514 Week 1: Discussion Post
- MSW 512 Week 1: Practice Approach Choice Post
- MSW 511 Week 1: Cultural Self-Location Post
- MSW 509 Week 1: Diagnosis Label and Stigma Post
MSW 513 Week 1 questions, answered
Do I need a citation in a first discussion post?
Most sections ask for at least one, and the useful place for it is under the claim that a burden falls unevenly rather than under a definition everyone in the classroom already shares. A source supporting a point nobody disputes reads as decoration. Check what your rubric sets as a minimum, since the requirement varies and posts are marked against it.
Can I write about something from my own field placement?
Yes, at the level of the rule rather than the person. What you saw a screening requirement do is legitimate material and it is the reason your post is worth reading. Names, agencies, dates and any cluster of details from which a reader could identify the person all come out. The pattern survives that removal; the individual should not be recoverable from it.
Is an issue too small if only one office applies the rule?
Rarely. Local rules are often the better choice because the decision is visible and somebody within reach made it, which gives the rest of the term something to act on. The risk runs the other way: an issue stated at the scale of a whole social problem leaves the writer with no decision to point at and nothing anyone could reverse.
Where can I find a free MSW 513 Week 1 sample paper?
This page carries a full MSW 513 Week 1 discussion post on a foster home bedroom rule applied to grandparents, with margin notes on how it separates hardship from injustice.
What counts as an injustice in the MSW 513 Week 1 post?
A cost someone carries because a rule was written one way when it could have been written another, with the rule and its author named, rather than a hardship that would exist under any rule.