NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

JULY 23, 2023

This is the model that’s proven so successful in New York City – where a comprehensive evaluation found that it reduced time in foster care with no compromise of safety. Cara, who asked to keep her last name private, said she had already been in touch with a domestic violence organization about her ex.

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Child Welfare Welfare Domestic Violence Foster Care 97

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

FEBRUARY 3, 2022

And, by the way, because foster care is so expensive and because, in many cases, the federal government will pay half the cost, this approach also saves money. The right policy concerning tearing children from battered mothers because the children “witnessed domestic violence” can be boiled down to a single word: Don’t.

Child Welfare 98

Child Welfare Welfare Domestic Violence Foster Care 98

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

JANUARY 11, 2022

The Western New England Law Review has a superb summary of the research showing the enormous harm to children caused when they are taken from domestic violence survivors (on grounds that the parent “allowed” the child to “witness domestic violence”). Foster-care panic is like a fire.

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Domestic Violence Child Welfare Foster Care Welfare 76

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

SEPTEMBER 26, 2023

(Note that you need to register for each separately You can register for the first event here and the second event here.) ● The head of the family police agency in Missouri is bragging that they have reduced foster care. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports on what happened next.

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Domestic Violence Foster Care Advocacy Interviewing 105

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

DECEMBER 19, 2023

The Imprint also has a story on that new lawsuit that attempts to stop the family police agency in New York City from harassing domestic violence survivors and their families. Another Imprint story looks at recommendations from a foster youth and alumni organization. They want to “decriminalize being in foster care.”

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Domestic Violence Medicaid Foster Care Schools 70

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

OCTOBER 8, 2024

We have forced millions into foster care where the rate of abuse is, in fact, vastly higher than in the general population and, independent studies show , vastly higher than agencies admit in official figures. She complains about kinship foster care in part because relatives “live on the economic margins” [p.157]

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Child Welfare Domestic Violence Adoption Foster Care 96

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

JANUARY 6, 2022

Maine's first child welfare ombudsman, Dean Crocker, understood the lessons from the tragic death of Logan Marr, who was taken when her family poverty was confused with "neglect" and killed in foster care. She issues reports with shamefully shoddy methodology that throw gasoline on the fires of foster-care panic.

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Child Welfare Welfare Domestic Violence Foster Care 98

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

SEPTEMBER 19, 2023

It provides astoundingly small amounts of cash or basic goods so children can stay home or return home because, guess what, they were taken, or are now trapped in foster care, because of poverty alone. It’s an excellent program – but why is it just a tiny add-on to a system built on family policing and foster care?

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Domestic Violence Foster Care Interviewing Advocacy 102

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

AUGUST 22, 2023

Kelley Fong asks in a commentary for the Hartford Courant if the head of the state’s family police agency will make sure there’s no foster-care panic. She writes: DCF has expressed a commitment to keeping families together, and has worked, impressively, to decrease foster care caseloads and refer families to community supports.

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Domestic Violence Adoption Foster Care Diversity 86

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

DECEMBER 12, 2023

According to CR: DCS has dramatically reduced its historical over-reliance on non-family institutional placements … The percentage of Tennessee children in foster care placed with families has risen and has been maintained at approximately 88 percent. So it’s no wonder CR’s claims of success don’t always hold up well. Not anymore.

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Child Welfare Welfare Foster Care Domestic Violence 117

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

NOVEMBER 9, 2022

Last week, they published a story about high turnover among caseworkers for the private agencies that oversee foster care in that city, and the enormous harm that does to children. A common misunderstanding is that the leading reason kids are taken into the foster care system is because of physical or sexual abuse.

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Child Welfare Domestic Violence Foster Care Adoption 98

Social Work Blog

JUNE 26, 2024

Poetic approaches have been and continue to be used to promote awareness of such critical problems as domestic violence, poverty, racism, sexism, and so much more. Consider the invasion of Ukraine, gun violence, oppression, and women’s rights as just a few examples. Poetry lends voice to the oppressed and can be empowering.

Social Worker 106

Social Worker Domestic Violence LCSW Nursing Home 106

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

FEBRUARY 27, 2024

But typically, they aim to fix poor conditions for children living in foster care. Legal experts say it is particularly rare for groups of parents, such as those in the Gould case, to seek systemic changes to the investigation and surveillance process, asserting their rights before a foster care removal.

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Child Welfare Interviewing Foster Care Domestic Violence 120

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

OCTOBER 14, 2024

There is searing testimony from victims of false reports, particularly from survivors of domestic violence. Click on any name and the video will go straight to testimony from that witness. But you may want to start with the testimony of Melissa Friedman.

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Domestic Violence Child Welfare Medicaid Welfare 62

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

JANUARY 14, 2024

Among those who suffer most: Children of domestic violence victims. Terrified that their children will be taken under laws labeling them bad parents for “allowing” their children to see them being beaten, a national survey found that domestic violence survivors fear seeking help – often for good reason.

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Domestic Violence Child Welfare Welfare Hospitals 40

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

NOVEMBER 4, 2022

So in 2021, the most recent year for which data are available, when you compare entries into care to impoverished child population, Massachusetts tore apart families at a rate 60% above the national average. The snapshot number – the number of children trapped in foster care on any given day -- is even worse. She said no.

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Foster Care Domestic Violence Child Welfare Welfare 98

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

JANUARY 16, 2024

Consideration of possible exemptions for professionals working with legal representation teams and/or victims of domestic violence or sexual violence. Survivors of domestic violence are among those most adversely affected by mandatory reporting.

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Domestic Violence Child Welfare Welfare Disability 107

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

SEPTEMBER 8, 2022

The premise is that because of the “shortage,” children can’t see their parents while in foster care, and families don’t get the guidance they need to jump through all the hoops they must surmount to prove themselves worthy of getting their children back. It’s not like the state can’t afford to step in and provide this money.

Child Welfare 98

Child Welfare Welfare Foster Care Domestic Violence 98

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

DECEMBER 19, 2021

Like the psychiatrist who implied that Mom was to blame for being a victim of domestic violence. (He All of the children were taken away. Two of them were placed with the abusive father. And there is so much more: ? He didn’t literally say “she was asking for it” but he came awfully close.)

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Domestic Violence Child Welfare Interventional Welfare 98

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

DECEMBER 13, 2023

Scoppetta , both state and federal courts told New York family police agencies that no, you are not allowed to tear apart families just because a mother is, herself, a victim of domestic violence. Research shows the trauma of removal in such situations is worse than any trauma that may be caused by witnessing domestic violence.

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Domestic Violence Child Welfare Adoption Welfare 90

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

SEPTEMBER 19, 2022

That would make everything ten times worse for the children by subjecting them to traumatic investigations and stripsearches and possibly consigning them to the chaos of foster care. This too is backed up by research.

Domestic Violence 98

Domestic Violence Mental Health Child Welfare Foster Care 98

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

MAY 15, 2023

The actual evidence of the inherent harm of foster care and the high rate of abuse in foster care is so overwhelming, that all they can do is try to distract us with horror stories. The mother says Arabella was taken because she’s witnessed domestic violence, a tragically common reason for wrongful removal.

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Foster Care Adoption Domestic Violence Administration 52

Social Work Blog

JUNE 26, 2024

Poetic approaches have been and continue to be used to promote awareness of such critical problems as domestic violence, poverty, racism, sexism, and so much more. Consider the invasion of Ukraine, gun violence, oppression, and women’s rights as just a few examples. Poetry lends voice to the oppressed and can be empowering.

Social Worker 52

Social Worker Domestic Violence LCSW Nursing Home 52

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

JANUARY 25, 2022

The company that makes and sells the particular predictive analytics software that, as the column above documents, failed disastrously, also used to be in charge of foster care in Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas County, Florida. That failed disastrously, too.

Domestic Violence 40

Domestic Violence Child Welfare Behavior Analysis Substance Abuse 40

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

DECEMBER 23, 2021

But whatever the reason, after years of marching in lockstep with the Miami Herald – ignoring wrongful removal and sometimes fomenting foster-care panic -- the Tampa Bay Times has discovered that maybe all those children don’t need to be in foster care after all! Where have I heard that before? ?

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Foster Care Domestic Violence Addiction Counseling 52

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

DECEMBER 22, 2021

She raises her children with love and care even though she is herself a victim of domestic violence. After years of ignoring, and sometimes fomenting, foster-care panic, even the Tampa Bay Times admits a lot of children are being needlessly torn from everyone they know and love in that part of Florida. ?

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Child Welfare Welfare Domestic Violence Foster Care 76

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

JANUARY 2, 2023

People were asked things like whether, as a child, they had witnessed domestic violence, whether they felt no one in their family made them feel important or special or whether they “didn’t have enough to eat, had to wear dirty clothes, and had no one to protect you.” ACEs have become quite the fad.

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Child Welfare Self-harm Disorder Foster Care 98

Community Care

FEBRUARY 1, 2023

Chief executive Anna Feuchtwang also welcomed the DfE’s intention to “rebalance the system towards early support for families so they can overcome problems like mental health, domestic violence and addiction, and provide stable and supportive environments for their children to grow up in.”

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Domestic Violence Government Social Worker Mental Health 54

Social Work Haven

SEPTEMBER 14, 2023

Child Welfare Specialist : Social workers in this role focus on the safety and well-being of children, often within the context of child protective services or foster care systems. This includes defending individuals’ rights and addressing issues such as poverty, mental health, domestic violence, disability rights and substance abuse.

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Social Worker Treatment Planning Justice and Corrections Interventional 95

Social Work Haven

JUNE 15, 2023

This can include children and youth in foster care, individuals experiencing homelessness, survivors of domestic violence, older adults facing neglect, and many others. By amplifying their voices, social workers become agents of change, challenging societal structures and policies that perpetuate their marginalisation.

Social Worker 52

Social Worker Empathy Advocacy Mental Health 52

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

NOVEMBER 12, 2023

Have a look: The only good news for the family police came from the fact that, apparently, only a minority of respondents agreed with the statement “Overall, the foster care system harms more than helps the children in its care.” But while Gallup reveals how many agreed with the statement, it doesn’t say how many disagreed.

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Child Welfare Welfare Foster Care Adoption 104

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

DECEMBER 1, 2022

But leave it to the Deputy Chief of Staff at DCF to rub salt into the wounds of these grandmothers and so many others, declaring that “It is not solely the fact that the child is in foster care that raises their vulnerability to become a victim of human trafficking — rather the abuse or neglect that led them into state’s care.”

Domestic Violence 76

Domestic Violence Foster Care Child Welfare Welfare 76

University of Connecticut

MAY 8, 2023

My previous and future work involves working with some of the most vulnerable members of our society -- that work being with LGBTQIA+ youth, and victims and survivors of domestic violence. Like Frank Carollo, I hope to give back to the UConn community in similar ways in the future.

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Justice and Corrections LMSW Schools Mental Health 52

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

MARCH 14, 2023

In San Diego, Arabella McCormack and her sisters were taken from their mother not because she abused them, but because they witnessed domestic violence. They were placed with foster parents who adopted them. Arabella’s mother is suing – and still fighting for the return of Arabella’s sisters, who remain in foster care. ●

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Domestic Violence Child Welfare Welfare Foster Care 98

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

DECEMBER 26, 2022

Bad journalism by the Miami Herald set off a foster-care panic in Florida. The Western New England Law Review has a superb summary of the research showing the enormous harm to children caused when they are taken from domestic violence survivors. The article interweaves compelling case examples and a mass of research.

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Child Welfare Welfare Domestic Violence Foster Care 98

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

DECEMBER 26, 2023

We can do that because we have actual evidence that, in the overwhelming majority of cases, family preservation is not only more humane than foster care or massive surveillance, it’s also safer. That may help explain how a tragedy like this death in foster care could occur. ● In this blog post, I suggest a better idea.

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Child Welfare Welfare Foster Care Adoption 64

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

OCTOBER 12, 2022

Spectrum News reports on real solutions offered by the Maine Coalition to End Domestic Violence. ? While the state’s “child advocate” and a lawmaker with a poor track record on these issues send the state careening full-speed backwards, one group in Maine is pushing back. Last week I highlighted a law review article by Prof.

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Domestic Violence Child Welfare Psychiatric Welfare 76