Back from a long hike and a week of training in trauma-informed care, your humble correspondent will try to catch you up on the latest in child protection and welfare news.
Leading off: Following up on Governor Sanders’ executive order, an Arkansas foster care task force has released a strategic plan with recommendations to improve the system. The report provides a good description of and solutions for the challenges that Arkansas faces, including recommendations for improving Medicaid services for young children and better coordination of care. There’s also a focus on trauma-informed training, and of course I hope they’ll consider TBRI®.
A federal monitor reports that immigration authorities who have apprehended undocumented families crossing the border have been separating children from their parents due to “overcrowding” of facilities. It appears the government has re-opened the Pecos Children’s Center due to a surge in unaccompanied minors crossing the border.
Arizona has cut its foster care population in half since 2016. It appears a 2020 law requiring a court order prior to removal may have contributed to the decrease.
Massachusetts has a backlog of children, many of whom are in state custody, who need mental health hospitalization stuck in regular hospitals waiting for a bed to open. A bill proposed to help address this issue has an interesting feature: if a child in a group home has a mental health crisis, the state would ay the group home to hold the child’s placement so the child can return to the group home. Right now, it seems, once the child goes to a higher level of care, even for a short period, someone else takes that slot.
Missouri has also seen a significant drop in its foster care population since 2020. Factors may include the hiring of 100 prevention specialists as well as the passage of a law allowing up to 90 days of temporary “alternative” placement with a relative.
The US House has passed a Native American Child Protection Act designed to enhance collaboration between state/federal and tribal authorities.
I’ve been following the Utah case of Ruby Franke, who became a social media star from posting videos about how she disciplined her children. Recently, she was arrested after one of the children escaped from a house and was found bound by duct tape and malnourished. While numerous family members and neighborsh had expressed prior concerns about the children to CPS, the Salt Lake Tribune suggests that “free range parenting” laws prevented proper assistance. I’m not so sure about that.
A Louisiana audit showed that over 1000 callers per month to the state child abuse hotline abandoned their calls while on hold.
The State of North Carolina’s DHHS has “taken over” an otherwise independent county Department of Social Services.
Last but certainly not least, I’d note that the Arkansas report cited above states that its child welfare agency suffered a 70% turnover rate among family service workers in FY 2022. Then I read this article from Mother Jones about a recent virtual seminar sponsored by the Kempe Center. From the MJ writer’s perspective, the meeting appears to have been something akin to a struggle session in which social workers, aided by “child welfare abolitionist” advocates, were encouraged to confess how their work destroyed families. There’s a way to express how difficult this work is without running staff into the ground. Here’s an example.
Did I miss anything? If so, please let me know and I’ll include it. Thanks for reading, sharing, subscribing, and supporting this work.