Tagged With "Child Protection Services"
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Trapped in the Web of Family Policing: The Harms of Mandated Reporting and the Need for Parent-Led Approaches to Safe, Thriving Families
By Imani Worthy, Tracy Serdjenian and Jeanette Vega Brown, RISE This article was published in the Spring 2022 Issue of Family Integrity & Justice Quarterly , "Poverty Is Not Abuse...Poverty Is Not Neglect." A family’s contact with the family polic ing system often begins with a call to the child abuse and maltreatment “hotline” made by a mandated reporter. About two-thirds of reports to New York’s Statewide Central Register (SCR) are made by mandated reporters—“ certain professionals...
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The Impact of COVID-19 on Reunification for Child Welfare-Involved Families
Original post by Children's Bureau Express COVID-19 has been a source of disruption and stress for families and systems and has significantly changed the way child welfare operates in its day-to-day business. At the start of the pandemic, many courts and child welfare agencies suspended or reduced in-person family time, which is a critical part of the reunification process and has several benefits to attachment and well-being. Family time also provides an opportunity for child welfare...
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Alignment Between Early Childhood and Child Welfare Systems Benefits Children and Families [childtrends.org]
By Elizabeth Jordan, Sharon Vandivere, and Esther Gross, Child Trends, June 7, 2022 Both the early childhood and child welfare systems are investing in promising new ways to support families with young children, particularly as they strive to recover from the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and strive to become more equitable. Families with young children have faced a set of unique challenges during the pandemic, as already fragile child care centers and family-based child care have...
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A Connectedness Framework: Breaking the Cycle of Child Removal for Black and Indigenous Children
Original post in Children's Bureau Express A recent article in the International Journal on Child Maltreatment: Research, Policy, and Practice proposes a framework to guide systems change in child welfare, with a goal of improving outcomes for children and families of color. The article, "A Connectedness Framework: Breaking the Cycle of Child Removal for Black and Indigenous Children," begins with an overview of the history of child removal, with a specific focus on Alaska Native, American...
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Connecting Communities One Book at a Time launches July 13: Register now to learn from our national and Georgia partners how to lead a book study of 'What Happened To You?'
After more tha n two years of a deadly pandemic, a racial reckoning laying bare gross inequities, historic environmental catastrophes, and record-breaking gun violence and mental health challenges, could the first known national study of “What Happened to You?,” by Bruce D. Perry and Oprah Winfrey, help us heal our collective trauma, one relationship and community at a time? That’s the question Carey Sipp, PACEs Connection director of strategic partnerships, hopes will be answered with a...
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Summer Course Registration Now Open!
Announcing upcoming courses for educators! Join Trauma-informed Education or Supporting Marginalized Students this summer!
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Connecting Communities One Book at a Time launches July 13: Register now to learn from our national and Georgia partners how to lead a book study of 'What Happened To You?'
After more tha n two years of a deadly pandemic, a racial reckoning laying bare gross inequities, historic environmental catastrophes, and record-breaking gun violence and mental health challenges, could the first known national study of “What Happened to You?,” by Bruce D. Perry and Oprah Winfrey, help us heal our collective trauma, one relationship and community at a time? That’s the question Carey Sipp, PACEs Connection director of strategic partnerships, hopes will be answered with a...
Calendar Event
Lead Your Own What Happened to You? Book Study!
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Strengthening Families with Infants and Toddlers: A Policy Framework for States [zeroththree.org
Strengthening Families with Infants and Toddlers: A Policy Framework for States , is a new report from ZERO TO THREE designed to reframe the role of child welfare from preventing harm to children toward strengthening families and the communities where they live. The policy framework includes 11 recommendations for states and communities that aim to advance equitable outcomes supporting the health and well-being of very young children and their families, including those who are in or are at...
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Factsheet Helps Youth in Care Learn to Self-Advocate [www.childwelfare.gov]
A factsheet from Child Welfare Information Gateway seeks to empower youth involved in the child welfare system to speak up about their feelings, wants and needs, questions and concerns, and aspirations. In doing so, youth can play an active role in the conversations and decision-making that directly affect them. The publication, Using Your Voice: A Guide for Youth on Participating in Case Planning , answers and expands upon the following questions: What is youth engagement? What is case...
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Register now to lead a "What Happened to You?" book study and attend leader training on July 27!
Register NOW to learn how to lead a book study of What Happened to You? by Bruce D. Perry, MD PhD, and Oprah Winfrey in your community! Learn how you can bring a book club on to your community and help inspire a desire to work together to create a more equitable society. Come hear lessons learned and tips about how you can use the Alliance’s book club guide in working with your community. Children’s Trust Fund Alliance (CFTA) will conduct this training on Wednesday, July 27, 3-5 p.m. ET.
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Too Many Barriers to Child Care: ‘Universal child care would create safety and opportunities for families' [risemagazine.org]
By Melissa Landrau, Rise Magazine, July 11, 2022 When I had an active ACS case, I had homemaking services—this involved a lady coming into my home from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm and monitoring my children. I had no privacy. The homemaker would watch and feed my children. If I had to step out, she would accompany me. It was outrageous. I didn’t feel like I was the parent because she did everything for me. I would’ve rather had child care without someone in my home intruding and controlling...
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Investing in Families Prevents Child Welfare Involvement [cssp.org]
To truly take an anti-racist approach to prevention, child welfare and safety net policies must address the organizational structures and injustices contributing to and perpetuating underlying economic and concrete needs of children and families. This brief from the Center for the Study of Social Policy, updated in July 2022, highlights policies that can make a significant impact for children and families when implemented as part of a multi-pronged approach to supporting the needs of...
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Conference Oct. 3-6, 2022: Connecting Change Makers Around the World Working for Justice and Fairness for Children, Youth and Families
Join Us... An Open Invitation to All Desiring Change to What Is Called Child Welfare October 3-6, 2022 The Kempe Center is excited to host the 2022 International Virtual Conference: A Call to Action to Change Child Welfare. We will reconvene and expand the international community of practice with an expected 3000 participants from 20 countries gathering to debate, innovate, and discuss ways to transform child welfare and to re-imagine healthy, restorative, and healing ways of working with...
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Youth leaving foster care, juvenile and other systems are aim of Washington housing effort [jjie.org]
By Joy Borkholder, Illustration: Kelly Flynn/Crosscut, Juvenile Justice Information Exchange, August 22, 2022 Sitting in her sunny studio apartment in Spokane’s South Hill neighborhood, surrounded by homes she describes as “out of a Pixar movie,” Williams, a 20-year-old junior college student, reflected on her accomplishments and challenges. She’d spent several of her middle school years in foster homes, as her mom struggled with addiction and mental health, sometimes locking herself inside...
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After a medical misdiagnosis, my kids were wrongfully taken from me. It took 5 months to get them back. (newsbreak.com)
Author Kelly Burch's article, After a medical diagnosis, my kids were wrongfully taken from me. Lorina Troy took her son J.J. to the hospital, where doctors suspected abuse. J.J. later received a diagnosis of a medical condition that causes fluid in the brain. This is Lorina's story, as told to Kelly Burch. This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Lorina Troy. It has been edited for length and clarity. When my son J.J. was born, something seemed off from the beginning. His head...
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A Trauma-Informed Guide for Working with Youth Involved in Multiple Systems [nctsn.org]
This resource guide from the National Child Traumatic Stress Network offers guidance to help those working with youth involved in multiple systems (YIMS) and their families to use a traumatic stress perspective and provide trauma-informed care. This resource guide uses two case vignettes throughout to illustrate the concepts within. It describes what trauma and recovery might look like for YIMS, trauma-informed practices that could be beneficial, using trauma-informed screening and...
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Register NOW for September 20 Book Study Leader Check-in and other "What Happened to You?" book study resources
It's not too late to lead your own book study of What Happened to You? by Bruce D. Perry, MD PhD, and Oprah Winfrey in your community! Register NOW to attend the Book Study Leader Check-In with Children’s Trust Fund Alliance on Tuesday, Sept. 20, 7-8:30 p.m. ET This is an opportunity to share your experiences as a book study leader, raise questions, make recommendations, and celebrate with us. Open to all book study leaders and those who may want to facilitate a study! This event is part of...
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Creating a Child & Family Well-Being System: A Paradigm Shift from Mandated Reporting to Community Supporting from Safe and Sound
The proposed paradigm shift from mandated reporting to community supporting is not a new idea, but one that has been proposed and championed by advocates, social workers, researchers, philanthropists, pediatricians, educators, and others across the country who have been informed by deep listening to families with lived expertise in the child welfare system. Creating a Child & Family Well-Being System: A Paradigm Shift from Mandated Reporting to Community Supporting from Safe and Sound...
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‘This job is impossible’: High turnover, low morale plague Missouri child welfare agency [missouriindependent.com]
By Clara Bates, Missouri Independent, September 19, 2022 More than half the frontline staff working in the Children’s Division at the start of the last fiscal year left by the end of the year. Some who remain take second jobs or sell plasma to make ends meet. It’s a situation advocates warn puts Missouri’s most vulnerable children at risk. Eighty open cases of child abuse and neglect sat on Matt Cordova’s desk in 2017 during the height of the “hole I found myself buried in,” he remembers.
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10 Tips for Sexual Abuse Prevention
When we consider the high numbers of children that are sexually abused it is disappointing how little is out there to support parents in prevention efforts. Although Erin’s Law has brought Sexual Abuse Prevention to many children in the school setting, parents are still often at a loss as to how to talk to their children about this difficult topic. As a therapist who has specialized in treating child sexual abuse for twenty years, I have crossed paths with thousands of children and families...
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Successful launch of our first Connecting Communities One Book at a Time initiative: “What Happened to You?”
PACEs Connection is thrilled to share that our first-ever Connecting Communities One Book at a Time initiative involved thousands of people; scores of book studies! The PACEs Connection's Connecting Communities One Book at a Time initiative helps people bring their community together around books that help us have critical conversations about trauma, racism, inequity, protective factors, positive childhood experiences, and the role community plays in preventing and healing trauma and...
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Inside Massachusetts’ Family Separation Disaster [motherjones.com]
By Julia Lurie, Mother Jones, September 26, 2022 When Bryan Hickson and Patricia Soto found out they were going to have a baby, the thrilled couple jumped into action. They watched YouTube videos about parenting, prepared healthy meals, and, since they planned to stay in their separate places to start, bought cribs and baby clothes for each of their homes. When Soto went in for ultrasounds, Hickson FaceTimed in from the warehouse where he works as a supervisor. When Soto went into labor, he...
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Mandatory Reporting Was Supposed to Stop Severe Child Abuse. It Punishes Poor Families Instead. [propublica.org]
by Mike Hixenbaugh and Suzy Khimm , NBC News, and Agnel Philip, ProPublica, October 12, 2022 After the Sandusky child abuse scandal rocked Pennsylvania, the state required more professionals to report suspected child abuse. That led to a strained child welfare system and more unsubstantiated reports against low-income families. More than a decade before the Penn State University child sex abuse scandal broke, an assistant football coach told his supervisors that he had seen Jerry Sandusky...
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Can ‘Kinship Care’ Help the Child Welfare System? The White House Wants to Try. [nytimes.com]
By Erica L. Green, Photo by Chet Strange for the New York Times, The New York Times, October 13, 2022 The Biden administration proposes spending $20 billion over a decade to help some of the most vulnerable families in the country, including relatives suddenly thrust into child rearing. WASHINGTON — Maria Elena Thomas and her husband were ready for a simpler life after they retired in 2015, sold their home in Colorado and settled on the southeastern coast of Spain. “People would ask, ‘When...
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Save the date: 23rd National Conference on Child Abuse & Neglect: April 11-13, 18-20, 2023
A Theme That Recognizes the Importance of Change “I spent 8 or 9 months really just meeting with pretty much anyone who would ask because there's always something to be learned from a conversation. And, having really thoughtful conversations about not only what the problems are, but what the solutions are, that's also really important.” —Aysha E. Schomburg, J.D., Associate Commissioner, Children's Bureau, “Threading Equity Throughout Child Welfare” podcast Nearly 1 year after her appointment...
Calendar Event
23rd National Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect (NCCAN)
Calendar Event
23rd National Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect (NCCAN)
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Flourishing Families, Centering Justice: Policy solutions for prevention-focused, trauma-informed supports for children and families (Webinar recording now available!)
Over 130 people gathered on November 1, 2022, to learn more about how to create a system that supports child and family well-being during the 4CA Flourishing Families, Centering Justice webinar. The event focused on trauma-informed primary, secondary, and tertiary policy approaches to support struggling families and keep them together. The webinar began with a brief overview of historical and current policies that have contributed to racism, inequity, and family separation in the United...
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Safe Harbor Child Access Centers by Ellie Santiago
Safe Harbor was originally created by a man who struggled with finding a suitable location for supervised visits with his own child. At the time, the system was not favorable towards fathers, and he saw an opportunity to provide support to other fathers in similar situations. Amid his situation, he created Safe Harbor and used it as an outlet to connect other children with their parents providing a safe and fun place to enjoy time together. Carol Dvoor, President/Director, grew up in...
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New Rise Series: The Intersection of Family Policing and Domestic and Intimate Partner Violence [risemagazine.org]
By Rise, November 1, 2022 At Rise, the vast majority of parents impacted by the family policing system are Black and brown women who are survivors of domestic violence (DV), intimate partner violence (IPV) and/or sexual violence. Every year, many—if not most—parents in our Rise & Shine Parent Leadership Program write about and/or discuss experiences of domestic violence, sexual abuse and/or intimate partner violence in connection to their experience with the family policing system , a...
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Stepping Into My Power: ‘I made a change because my kids were hurting’ [risemagazine.org]
By Shamara Kelly, Rise, October 31, 2022 My biggest fear has always been ACS taking my kids. I have embodied trauma from when I was a child—the system broke me and my siblings apart and took us away from our mom. I wasn’t going to allow that to happen to my two kids. As a parent, I had my share of ACS cases when I was experiencing domestic violence, but because of my childhood experiences, I don’t believe ACS could have helped. ACS actually made things worse for me because caseworkers...
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Jeoff Gordon sees PACEs science, PACEs Connection playing a vital role in ‘relieving some of the most anguishing pain in our society.’
Note: PACEs Connection is in dire financial straits. We are asking for support, from you, our 57,586 members, to help cover the loss of foundation funding that was promised and did not come through. Pay and hours have been cut for our staff—most of us will be laid off for the month of December. Another grant will pick up in January, but we will still be underfunded. Since sounding the alarm this summer, we’ve raised about $26,000 . Thankfully, about 25% of new donors are making monthly...
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Texas case could change adoption rules for Native American children, and undercut tribal rights [texastribune.org]
By Roxanna Asgarian, Photo by Shuran Huang, The Texas Tribune, November 10, 2022 Jennifer and Chad Brackeen, an anesthesiologist and a stay-at-home dad, already had two biological children when they decided to foster a child. “God started to speak to our hearts about opening our home for more,” Jennifer explained in a now-defunct blog. The Evangelical Christian couple in Fort Worth began caring for a 10-month-old boy in 2016, and the next year, decided they wanted to adopt him. But the boy...
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New Study to Apply Race Equity Lens to Federal Child Welfare Data [chapinhall.org]
Since 2001 the Children’s Bureau in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has conducted periodic reviews of state child welfare systems. These reviews monitor compliance with federal child welfare requirements and determine how children and families experience being served by the child welfare system. Three rounds of these “Child and Family Service Reviews” or CFSRs have been conducted, and the fourth round (CFSR-4) is underway. ( See the most recent reports .) Ensuring that child...
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Re-Imagining Children's Rights Through a Family-Centred Lens
Every child has a right to a life free from harm within a community that supports them and their family to thrive. But does every child get to experience these rights? https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/re-imagining-childrens-rights-through-a-family-centred-lens-tickets-465184939677 Join Starlings Community and their partners at Family Advocacy Support Centre , as they recognize National Child Day in a special webinar that will inspire a society that supports children to experience their rights...
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Civil Rights Advocates Call U.S. Child Welfare System a ‘National Problem’ [theimprint.org]
By Jeremy Loudenback, The Imprint, November 17, 2022 A sprawling report released today by Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union describes civil rights issues within the child welfare system as a “national family separation crisis” that needs “immediate attention and action.” The analysis of federal and state data and dozens of interviews with parents draw attention to the harms of child welfare investigations and the disproportionate involvement of Black and Indigenous...
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Is N.Y.’s Child Welfare System Racist? Some of Its Own Workers Say Yes. [nytimes.com]
By Andy Newman, The New York Times, Photo by Nora Savosnick for the New York Times, November 22, 2022 New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services must protect children without overpolicing families. A report the agency commissioned says it often fails. For decades, Black families have complained that the city’s child welfare agency, the Administration for Children’s Services, is biased against them. It turns out that many of the agency’s own employees agree, according to a racial...
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We Know Investing In Families Works. Why Are We Still Investing in Harm? [upendmovement.org]
By Joanna Lack & Bill Bettencourt, upEND, November 15, 2022 A key tenet of abolition is the recognition that carceral systems are not broken; no amount of reform can fix them. Yet time and again, family policing systems push forward the same reforms – a maddening demonstration that the more things change, the more they stay the same . The pandemic, and now endemic, have placed the family policing system under additional stress. Like always, children and families trapped in its carceral...
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North Carolina moves closer to creating nation's first ACEs-informed courts system
(l-r) Judge J. Corpening; Ben David, district attorney, New Hanover County; Chief Justice Paul Newby; Judge Andrew Heath, executive director, Administrative Office of the Courts of the Chief Justice's ACEs Informed Courts Task Force. David and Heath serve as Task Force co-chairs . “There is not any more important work going on in the State of North Carolina,” said Ben David, District Attorney for New Hanover County and co-chair of the Chief Justice’s ACEs-Informed Task Force . The Task force...
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How much would the NAS poverty reduction packages reduce referrals to CPS and foster care placements? Would they reduce racial disproportionality in child welfare? (nasonline.org).
Because of a collaboration with Columbia University and UW-Madison, we have answers to these questions. By Peter Peter Pecora, Casey Family Programs, March 17, 2023 - Overview The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) recently released a “ roadmap ” to reduce child poverty by as much as half through the implementation of a series of social policy packages. The aim of this study was to simulate the reductions in Child Protective Services (CPS) involvement and foster care placements that are...
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“Caring for our own” theme emerges at May Meeting of North Carolina Chief Justice’s Task Force on ACEs-Informed Courts
Ben David, co-chair of the North Carolina Chief Justice's Task Force on ACEs-Informed Courts, shares plans to sustain the work done during the two-year term of the Task Force, to "care for our own" speaking of North Carolina's children, youth, families, communities, victims of crimes, members of law enforcement, the judiciary and court officers and staffers. He also shared Chief Justice Paul Newby's hopes of "getting ACEs-informed courts" into the culture, and said a national conference for...
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What Children Really Need Is Adults That Understand Development
The brain doesn’t fully develop until about the age of 25. This fact is sometimes quite surprising and eye opening to most adults. It can also be somewhat overwhelming for new parents and professionals who are interacting with babies and young children every day, to contemplate. It is essential to realize however, that the greatest time of development occurs in the years prior to kindergarten. And even more critical to understand is that by age three 85 percent of the core structures of the...
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Governor Newsom Signs Law Cracking Down on Sex Trafficking of Minors (gov.ca.gov)
To read more, please click here. SACRAMENTO – Governor Gavin Newsom, joined by First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom, State Senator Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield), State Senator Anna Caballero (D-Merced), and survivors and advocates, today signed SB 14 (Grove) into law to steepen penalties for human trafficking of minors in California. The law designates human trafficking of a minor for purposes of a commercial sex act as a serious felony — including under the state’s “Three Strikes” law — and...
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A Balanced View on Mandated Reporting versus Family Supporting
Viewpoint July 31, 2023 Seeking a Balanced View of Child Protective Services Howard Dubowitz, MD, MS 1 ; Richard P. Barth, PhD, MSW 1 Author Affiliations Article Information JAMA Pediatr. 2023;177(10):991-992. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2023.2578 A s professionals working closely with child protective services (CPS) for many years, we are well aware of its shortcomings, particularly undertrained and overwhelmed staff who may inadequately protect children and serve families as mandated by...
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Early Relational Health Innovators Partner In Program Supported by PACEs Connection Cooperative of Communities Members in Twelve California Counties
Christina Bethell, Ph.D, MBA, MPH, founder of the Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative (CAHMI), principal author of the groundbreaking study on positive childhood experiences, and creator of the free Well Visit Planner, among other innovations. Two internationally-respected leaders and innovators in complementary aspects of early relational health and childhood and maternal health equity recently launched a partnership they believe will benefit everyone from newborn babies and...
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Empathy: Can It Make The Difference?
Emotion has an enormous impact on imprinting memory in our brains. I had an experience when I was 6 years old that included emotion and I have the memory of it all of these many years later. It was a 6 year old birthday sleepover party. There were 7 girls invited that lived near each other and played together most days. A girl new to the neighborhood was invited only due to the requirement of the birthday girl’s mother. I was also invited. I lived a block away but did play with these girls...