CPS Alerts?
....and other child welfare news for October 11, 2024
First up, here’s an interesting legislative idea from Mississippi. A local commission looking into child protection is proposing a law authorizing child protective services to issue a public “alert” in situations where credible child abuse allegations have been reported but the family cannot be found within 24 hours.
Having an “Amber Alert for CPS cases” raises confidentiality issues, but the alternative is that families can disappear, children are isolated, and abuse continues. I’ve seen too many child abuse investigations over the years where a family can’t be found until months later, when the child shows up in the emergency room with serious abusive injuries or worse. There must be a better way of ensuring that someone is laying eyes on the child to ensure his or her safety.
In related news, here’s a tragic story out of Utah about a child who died from chronic abuse and neglect. As the article notes, his family withdrew him from school after teachers reported suspected abuse. “There are currently no protocols in place to check on children with Department of Health and Humans [sic] Services case histories who suddenly disappear from the public eye,” the article noted.
Other interesting news from the field:
The Center for Health Care Strategies has put out an interesting guide discussing how primary care physicians can help prevent at-risk children and their families from becoming entangled in the child welfare system.
It looks as if Michigan’s legislature needs to review its criteria for what constitutes an “aggravated circumstance” meriting a quick termination of parental rights without reunification efforts. According to the Michigan Court of Appeals, knowingly and willingly allowing individuals to sexually assault your young child is not the same as doing it yourself. Terrible outcome.
Sometimes the news demonstrates the divide between those focused on family preservation and those focused on child safety. See The Imprint’s recent articles, one on efforts to “narrow the door” to foster care and the other on child welfare leaders’ failures to focus on child maltreatment fatalities.
Speaking of The Imprint, here’s an article discussing federal legislation that would require reporting of voluntary kinship and safety resource placements or “hidden foster care.”
In international news:
Law enforcement raided Save the Children’s offices in Guatemala as part of a case alleging the nonprofit is “smuggling children across the border.”
Advocating in Slovenia for a child rights ombudman.
Ontario is conducting an audit of its child welfare system.
As in the US, families in the UK struggle financially to care for children they’ve taken into kinship care.
For my journalist friends interested in child welfare — check out this free seminar and funding opportunity!
Thanks for reading!