Foster Care, Substance Abuse and Welfare

Torn Apart: How the Abolition Movement Destroys Foster Youth – And How Listening To Us Can Build A Safer World

Child Welfare Monitor

NOVEMBER 12, 2024

by Patty Flores I am grateful to be publishing this essay by a gifted and needed young voice in the child welfare space. She spent half of her life in foster care, struggling with substance abuse. Also silenced are our allies, who are shamed for wanting to pursue a career in child welfare.

Child Welfare

Child Welfare Foster Care Welfare Substance Abuse

A fundamental conflict: addressing implicit bias in mandatory reporter training

Child Welfare Monitor

MARCH 16, 2025

by Marie Cohen Recognizing implicit bias in mandated reporting training is a national focus for addressing racial inequity in child welfare. I had my first experience with the updated training last month as part of my preparation to serve as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for a child in foster care.

Child Welfare

Child Welfare Foster Care Self-harm Welfare

Child Protective Services in the District of Columbia: An alarming increase in incomplete investigations in FY2024

Child Welfare Monitor

JANUARY 10, 2025

by Marie Cohen This post was originally published on Child Welfare Monitor DC on December 9, 2024. Because I rarely post on that site, I am letting it expire and will include future DC-focused posts on Child Welfare Monitor. The number of children entering foster care increased for the first time in over ten years.

Foster Care

Foster Care Child Welfare Welfare Social Worker

Webinars

The Everyday Donor: Unlocking Prospecting Segments Through Behavior Analysis

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Reposting: Torn apart: A skewed portrait of child welfare in America

Child Welfare Monitor

OCTOBER 5, 2024

As an illustration, I am reposting my 2022 review of Roberts’ most recent book, Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families–and How Abolition Can Build a Safer Worl d. child welfare system. See my commentary on the abuse homicides of Rashid Bryant and Julissia Batties , for example).

Child Welfare

Child Welfare Welfare Foster Care Mental Health

As foster care removals plummet, where’s the promised help for families?

Child Welfare Monitor

JULY 8, 2024

Year after year, states and the federal government continue to release annual data showing a decline in the number of children in foster care, congratulating themselves on keeping families together. percent over the previous year 15.6 percent since 2018. “We

Foster Care

Foster Care Child Welfare Welfare Substance Abuse

When it comes to the problems plaguing “child welfare” wrongful removal drives everything else – including caseworker turnover. Case in point: Massachusetts

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

NOVEMBER 21, 2024

The story begins and ends with the story of Maria Toscano and her desperate efforts to schedule a visit with her children in foster care. According to the story, Toscano’s husband was also cited for substance abuse, according to DCF records she shared with the Globe. This is not an aberration.

Child Welfare

Child Welfare Welfare Domestic Violence Foster Care

The fundamental misconception at the heart of the Family First Act

Child Welfare Monitor

SEPTEMBER 9, 2024

States have been hard-put to devise plans for implementing the new services because the bill was designed to fix a problem that did not exist–the alleged absence of child welfare services designed to help families stay together. Sometimes, in order to prevent the need for foster care, mom and dad might need a little help.

Child Welfare

Child Welfare Medicaid Foster Care Welfare

Drenched in trendy psychobabble, legislation in New Hampshire proposes to fight trauma with trauma.

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

FEBRUARY 12, 2025

A bill in New Hampshire effectively equates strong emotion with abuse. Texas dialed back the power of its family police agency (a more accurate term than child welfare agency). Under this bill, all this trauma could be inflicted anytime a caseworker concludes that a childs physical, emotional or psychological welfare is at risk.

Psychology

Psychology Substance Abuse Foster Care Child Welfare

How the journalism of child welfare fails

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

OCTOBER 20, 2021

Two online news sites published more than 10,000 words about foster care in West Virginia. Yet the equivalent happens, over and over and over, when the topic is foster care. Parents who lose their children to foster care, on the other hand, are overwhelmingly poor and disproportionately nonwhite.

Child Welfare

Child Welfare Welfare Foster Care Substance Abuse

NCCPR news and commentary round-up, week ending Sept. 24, 2024

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

SEPTEMBER 24, 2024

● Often children are taken when their poverty is confused with neglect only to face actual abuse in foster care. But rarely children really do face horrific abuse in their own homes. The research arm of the Maine Legislature produced a series of reports on recent child abuse deaths.

Child Welfare

Child Welfare Justice and Corrections Foster Care Criminal Justice

Officials in two states that routinely destroy Native American families make their position clear: We don’t care, we don’t have to.

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

FEBRUARY 13, 2024

The closest thing she has to a concrete solution is no solution at all – making it easier to place Native children in hidden foster care. In South Dakota, Native Americans are 13 percent of the child population and nearly three-quarters of the foster-child population, an issue first exposed in 2010 by NPR.

Substance Abuse

Substance Abuse Foster Care Child Welfare Welfare

The “druggie mom” in my neighborhood

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

JANUARY 29, 2023

Arizona authorities arrested Blodgett for drug possession, and the state’s family police agency threw his son into foster care. In fact, the available evidence suggests that the biggest dangers to Jakob Blodgett were the police who arrested his father and the family police who forced the boy into foster care.

Substance Abuse

Substance Abuse Addiction Foster Care Mental Health

Child Abuse Prevention Programs: Making A Difference In Our Communities

All For Kids

FEBRUARY 27, 2025

This article will explore common questions, facts, and figures about this tragic national epidemic, including how education empowers individuals and ways to get involved locally and nationally in the fight against child abuse. What Is Child Abuse Prevention?

Domestic Violence

Domestic Violence Substance Abuse Military PTSD

What Does KVC Stand For?

KVC

APRIL 18, 2024

KVC’s Positive Impact Grows Nationally During the 1980-90s, KVC grew to represent one of the broadest child welfare and behavioral healthcare continuums of care in the nation. We work locally, one child, family and community at a time, while also influencing the fields of child welfare and mental health nationally.

Child Welfare

Child Welfare Healthcare Welfare Mental Health

“Maybe we're just too damn intrusive": Tracing the take-the-child-and-run mentality that has endangered Massachusetts children for more than a century

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

NOVEMBER 4, 2022

Whenever anyone in state government was asked about the problems in the state’s “child welfare” system they’d give the same stock answer: As soon as the new Department of Social Services was up and running, and took over jobs then done by the Department of Public Welfare, everything would be fine! Katz did something simple.

Foster Care

Foster Care Domestic Violence Child Welfare Welfare

NCCPR news and commentary round-up, week ending August 28, 2023

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

AUGUST 29, 2023

Have you noticed how the writing of “child welfare” establishment types sounds more frantic lately? Records that have to be “admitted” into the database [but may not have been] include substance abuse records, visitation records and medical records. Josh Gupta-Kagan. I have a blog post about it. ●

Foster Care

Foster Care Substance Abuse Child Welfare Disability

NCCPR news and commentary round-up, week ending January 25, 2022

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

JANUARY 25, 2022

Family Integrity and Justice Works , the group started by two former top federal child welfare officials, is publishing a quarterly magazine. At long last, it appears America’s racial justice reckoning might be starting to reach child welfare. ? We begin this week not just with one story but with an entire magazine.

Domestic Violence

Domestic Violence Child Welfare Behavior Analysis Substance Abuse

NCCPR in WitnessLA: A Good California Supreme Court Decision Curbs The Family Police

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

JANUARY 10, 2024

A decision by the California Supreme Court sheds rare light on how family police agencies (a more accurate term than “child welfare” agencies) like the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services behave, and how that behavior hurts children.

Child Welfare

Child Welfare Welfare Family Services Substance Abuse

What are the 10 Roles of Social Workers

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. Therapist : Clinical social workers provide therapy to individuals, couples, and families, addressing mental health and emotional challenges.

Social Worker

Social Worker Treatment Planning Interventional Justice and Corrections

4 State-Specific Factors That Affect a Child’s Wellbeing

KVC

APRIL 7, 2021

The KIDS COUNT Data Book mentions, “exposure to violence, family stress, inadequate housing, lack of preventive health care, poor nutrition, poverty and substance abuse” as direct factors in undermining a child’s health. When a child has good health, they are likely to have better outcomes in school and beyond.

Healthcare

Healthcare Foster Care Substance Abuse Schools

How to Support LGBTQIA+ Youth: Gender-Affirming Care and Resources

KVC

JUNE 16, 2022

One report revealed that this support and acceptance is associated with greater self-esteem, social support, general health status, less depression, less substance abuse and less suicidal ideation and behaviors among LGBTQIA+ youth. Acceptance and support by family members or other caregivers has a huge impact on a LGBTQIA+ youth.

Mental Health

Mental Health Self-harm Substance Abuse Adoption

NCCPR news and commentary round-up, week ending December 14, 2021

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

DECEMBER 14, 2021

The real story of COVID-19 and “child welfare” was not a “pandemic of child abuse” -- that never happened. The state’s child welfare “ombuds” investigated and found that KING got it right. Speaking of dangerous delusions about adoption, check out Prof. Shanta Trivedi’s analysis, in Ms. , NYN Media has that story. ?

Child Welfare

Child Welfare Domestic Violence Adoption Behavior Analysis

NCCPR family preservation news and commentary round-up for the year 2024, part two

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

DECEMBER 30, 2024

OVERVIEWS OF FAMILY POLICING FAILURE You hear it from family police agencies (a more accurate term than child welfare agencies) all the time: We never take children because of poverty alone. Thats why this post to the NCCPR Child Welfare Blog is called All the failures of family policing in a single case - and it's not an unusual case.

Child Welfare

Child Welfare Foster Care Welfare Domestic Violence

A Fatal Collision: The Opioid Epidemic and the Dismantling of Child Protection Services in Washington State

Child Welfare Monitor

JANUARY 13, 2025

On August 24, 2024, the Washington Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) proudly announced in a press statement that it had reduced the number of children in out-of-home care by nearly half since 2018. Specifically, the number of children in foster care had fallen from 9,171 in 2018 to 4,971 as of August 14, 2024.

Domestic Violence

Domestic Violence Foster Care Substance Abuse Child Welfare

Child Welfare Update: February 2024

Child Welfare Monitor

MARCH 4, 2024

I’m trying out a different format for Child Welfare Monitor–a monthly newsletter format that highlights events and information that catch my eye. If you can think of a more exciting title than “Child Welfare Update,” let me know. Race trumps child welfare I: Black children don’t get attached?

Child Welfare

Child Welfare Welfare Foster Care Adoption

Shelter, Inc. Welcomes Two New Board Members: Rian Spencer and Arlen S. Gould

Shelter, Inc

JANUARY 7, 2025

a leading child welfare agency dedicated to providing safety, stability, and support to children and families in crisis, is pleased to announce the addition of two remarkable community leaders to its Board of Directors: Rian Spencer and Arlen S. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Shelter, Inc. Welcomes Two New Board Members: Rian Spencer and Arlen S.

Substance Abuse

Substance Abuse University Child Welfare Mental Health

When the journalism of child welfare fails, part one: The Boston Globe’s flying donkey

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

JUNE 27, 2023

Time for the token quote from a Black person Some reporters at the Globe seem to have a lot of trouble quoting Black people about child welfare. Eleven percent of Black and Hispanic children in Massachusetts will be torn from their parents and consigned to the chaos of Massachusetts foster care. Here’s a case in point from 2020.

Child Welfare

Child Welfare Welfare Domestic Violence Addiction

In “child welfare” the horror stories go in all directions – all year long (2024 Edition)

NCCPR Child Welfare Blog

DECEMBER 29, 2024

Americas massive child welfare surveillance state was built on horror stories. Thats why weve long extended an offer to the fearmongers in the child welfare establishment: a mutual moratorium on using horror stories to "prove anything. Theyre suing Riverside County and the private agency that oversaw their foster care.

Child Welfare

Child Welfare Welfare Foster Care Adoption

Social Work Update

Torn Apart: How the Abolition Movement Destroys Foster Youth – And How Listening To Us Can Build A Safer World

A fundamental conflict: addressing implicit bias in mandatory reporter training

Webinars

Trending Sources

Child Protective Services in the District of Columbia: An alarming increase in incomplete investigations in FY2024

Webinars

Reposting: Torn apart: A skewed portrait of child welfare in America

As foster care removals plummet, where’s the promised help for families?

When it comes to the problems plaguing “child welfare” wrongful removal drives everything else – including caseworker turnover. Case in point: Massachusetts

The fundamental misconception at the heart of the Family First Act

Drenched in trendy psychobabble, legislation in New Hampshire proposes to fight trauma with trauma.

How the journalism of child welfare fails

NCCPR news and commentary round-up, week ending Sept. 24, 2024

Officials in two states that routinely destroy Native American families make their position clear: We don’t care, we don’t have to.

The “druggie mom” in my neighborhood

Child Abuse Prevention Programs: Making A Difference In Our Communities

What Does KVC Stand For?

“Maybe we're just too damn intrusive": Tracing the take-the-child-and-run mentality that has endangered Massachusetts children for more than a century

NCCPR news and commentary round-up, week ending August 28, 2023

NCCPR news and commentary round-up, week ending January 25, 2022

NCCPR in WitnessLA: A Good California Supreme Court Decision Curbs The Family Police

What are the 10 Roles of Social Workers

4 State-Specific Factors That Affect a Child’s Wellbeing

How to Support LGBTQIA+ Youth: Gender-Affirming Care and Resources

NCCPR news and commentary round-up, week ending December 14, 2021

NCCPR family preservation news and commentary round-up for the year 2024, part two

A Fatal Collision: The Opioid Epidemic and the Dismantling of Child Protection Services in Washington State

Child Welfare Update: February 2024

Shelter, Inc. Welcomes Two New Board Members: Rian Spencer and Arlen S. Gould

When the journalism of child welfare fails, part one: The Boston Globe’s flying donkey

In “child welfare” the horror stories go in all directions – all year long (2024 Edition)

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