I remember when I was in high school my English teacher put on this made for TV movie "After The Promise" staring Mark Harmon.
It took place during the Great Depression (true story) when a husband and a father of 4 boys ends up losing his wife to a sudden death and he ends up having to do less work in order to raise his boys so he goes to the government to get some welfare and instead they end up taking his kids away from him for parental neglect and placing them each in some separate fucked foster homes where they get abused and shit. So he spends his life trying to get them back.
After everybody in the school that had that English class and watched that movie not one person boy or girl had a dry eye.
I would recommend watching this movie if you can find it. I ended up buying a bootleg DVD on Ebay. Apparently it won a bunch of television awards in 1987 and is a cult favorite amongst movie buffs. I would be happy to make a copy of my DVD if anybody wants a copy for themselves.