maltreatment

In this installment of The Sounding Board, Dee Wilson reviews what we know about chronic maltreatment and how to stop the path to it

In child welfare, genuine safety science demands a method that can spot the errors in all directions, including wrongful removal, writes Richard Wexler.

By John Kelly An annual federal report on child maltreatment confirms what other data has already suggested: That during the first six months of the coronavirus pandemic, reports and investigations of abuse and neglect plummeted, in large part due to the absence of child care workers and school personnel from the lives of many children in that time frame. 

By Benjamin Levi Around the country, child welfare systems large and small have built a front door to child protection that relies heavily on information provided to the state from the public, especially from “mandated reporters” such as school officials, doctors and police officers. 

By The Imprint staff reports

Bill would bring spending up to $540 million for 2022, includes national registry connection and prohibition on foster care in poverty cases By John Kelly

Maltreatment fatalities up 1,780 to 1,840; officials say “no evidence” of a surge in victimization during pandemic By John Kelly As America headed into the coronavirus pandemic, the number of children who were confirmed to have been victims of abuse or neglect fell to its lowest point in a long time, perhaps more than two decades, according to the annual report released today by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF). 

Quesetta Bell has been a call specialist at the 2-1-1 call center in Akron, Ohio, for a year now. On an average day, she said, an operator in her position might get between 80 and 150 calls, anything from a query about city services to reports of downed power lines.

The child protective services sector already struggles in many ways relating to child safety, permanency, well-being and equity. A system that already had issues with demystifying dependency court hearings, reunifying families, strengthening parenting capacity and prioritizing equity is now carrying an even heavier weight: the strain from the coronavirus.