Protecting Children in Homeless Families: Mission Impossible?
Consider the following scenario which could occur in any city in Washington State: a pediatrician driving to work observed a toddler wearing nothing but a diaper and a t-shirt playing in a pile of...
View ArticleCan a Separate Department Reinvigorate Child Welfare?
Washington State’s Governor, Jay Inslee, has proposed creating a new department of children’s services that would remove the Children’s Administration (CA) from the Department of Social and Health...
View ArticleEffects of Excessive Workload on Child Welfare
Excessive workloads have been endemic in public child welfare agencies for decades, so much so that some advocates and policymakers may assume nothing can be done about it. However, when I began...
View ArticleWorkload Management in Child Protective Systems
In last month’s Sounding Board, I discussed several factors that have led to acute and chronic workload problems in public child welfare agencies: the steady growth in CPS reports from 1965 until the...
View ArticleIntergenerational Transmission of Child Neglect
This commentary is a revised version of a paper I wrote for Upbring, a private agency in Texas, during the spring of 2016. Modern CPS systems in the U.S. were created in state and federal law during...
View ArticleGreat Service Navigation Tool
I am poor at blogging, so in an effort to get this started I am throwing up a quick note about a really cool looking website for finding resources in Washington State, sent over to us by Mike Heard at...
View ArticleModels of Excellence in Child Welfare: Three Offices
Child welfare agencies around the country are rapidly losing their institutional memory through retirements, high turnover rates and changes in leadership. Child welfare leaders may have little or no...
View ArticleBullying and Intimidation in Child Welfare Management
In January 2018, Oregon’s Audits Division issued a blistering indictment of the mismanagement of the state’s child welfare system over many years and under several directors. The report, Foster Care in...
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