AMERICAN HUMANE ASSOCIATION The nation’s voice for the protection of children & animals

AMERICAN HUMANE ASSOCIATIONThe nation’s voice for the protection of children & animals

THE CHILD WELFARERESPONSE CONTINUUM

CHRONIC ISSUES THAT HAVE PLAGUED

CHILD PROTECTION

Patricia Schene, Ph.D.

Senior Child Welfare Fellow

AMERICANHUMANE

ASSOCIATION

The nation’s voice for the protection of children & animals

Outline

• Where we have been

• Consensus on what has been missing

• How Differential Response (DR) has contributed to address problems

• What we have learned from DR implementation

• What challenges remain

AMERICANHUMANE

ASSOCIATION


I. Where we have been Positive:

• Universal public support

• Reporting laws in all states; operational CPS capacity in all counties

• Social service responsibility/Law enforcement support

• Annual reports of 3 million children who may be or are experiencing child abuse/neglect

• Federal, state, and local resources support CPS system

• Network of out-of-home care

AMERICANHUMANE

ASSOCIATION


Where we have been…. Positive:

• Thousands of professionals with expertise in child maltreatment

• Ever-growing body of knowledge

• National commitment to three major outcomes:safety, permanence, and child well-being

• CPS system receptive to recognizing problems, instituting practice changes, re-framing statutes and policies, and evaluating effectiveness

• Courts, advocacy groups, legislators, administrators, media, all levels of government, and those within system have played important accountability roles

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ASSOCIATION


Where we have been… Negative:

• From beginning, demand [CA/N reports] has

exceeded capacity of CPS systems to adequately respond

• Many missed opportunities

• Standard focus on investigation and substantiation decision-making is time-consuming and often perceived as adversarial by families

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ASSOCIATION


Negative:

Where we have been…

• Assessments not comprehensive

• Parents not engaged sufficiently

• Multiple reports over time

• In-home services not assured

• Inadequate coordination between CPS and service systems

• Common case goals/shared progress reports not typical

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ASSOCIATION


II. Shared Consensus on what is needed

• Reduction in out of home placements/family preservation• Earlier Intervention• Primary Prevention• Family engagement and involvement in decision-making• Comprehensive assessments• Individualized case plans• Better connections of vulnerable families to community

supports • Less adversarial approaches to families• Strengthening families to better protect their children• Recognition of dimensions of chronicity and generation of

appropriate practice models • Systems of Care- coordination of all agencies and

resources working with family

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ASSOCIATION


How has DR Contributed to

Addressing these Issues

DR has various forms, but common factors exist:

• First visit with family characterized as assessment

• Approach seen as less adversarial

• What is assessed as pertinent issues and what family indicates they need become basis for service plan

• Agreement is sought on what needs to be changed, what would contribute to change, and how it would be measured

AMERICANHUMANE

ASSOCIATION


Differential Response….• CPS partners with relevant community resource for

family; some jurisdictions make joint family visits

• Services are usually in place faster for DR cases

• Evaluative research demonstrates that DR is viewed positively:

• Parents feel they are treated more respectfully

• caseworkers indicate they are actually doing more social work with families

• DR has demonstrated that children are as safe or safer than in systems without DR

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ASSOCIATION


Selected learnings about DR• Importance of engagement

• DR is not “quick-fix”

• problems facing families reported to CPS and actually screened in are not trivial

• problems often long-standing and related to patterns of living and parenting that will not quickly disappear

• Importance of comprehensive assessment • understanding not just what led to report but

underlying causal factors

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ASSOCIATION


Selected learnings about DR

• Necessary to follow up assessment with relevant interventions

• Importance of substantive training of staff

• in family engagement• principles of DR• what voluntary involvement actually entails• when case should move from DR track to

mandatory intervention• how to coordinate work with other public agencies

and community resources• criteria for closing case

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ASSOCIATION


Challenges Remaining

• CPS system is not resourced adequately to respond to identified child abuse/neglect much less child maltreatment documented in National Incidence Studies but not reported

• Communities do not have dependable ways in which parents/children can receive help when maltreatment exists

• Reluctance to bring so much to CPS

• If it does not belong to CPS, who does it belong to? • How can we assure a response to vulnerable

children?

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ASSOCIATION


Challenges Remaining• Need for network of resources recognizable by any

community member that is

• responsive to vulnerable children and families • and it must be supportive not accusatory

• We do not yet have a national consensus on

• what CPS should respond to• what should be the nature of that response, • what would be the criteria for not responding and • how would concerns of the community about a

vulnerable child be addressed?

AMERICAN HUMANE ASSOCIATION The nation’s voice for the protection of children & animals

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