December 1999 State Legislatures magazine: A new look at child protection

State Legislatures Magazine: December 1999

Editor's Note: This article appeared in the December 1999 issue of NCSL's magazine, State Legislatures. To order copies or to subscribe, contact the marketing department at (303) 364-7700.

A New Look at Child Protection

System Under Scrutiny
Better Ways to Protect Children
Taking New Approaches
What Does It Cost?
Future Directions

Visit Us and Learn More

What Can Legislators Do?

A New Look at Child Protection

Several states are trying new, flexible ways to protect children by enlisting community helpers to give child protective services a hand.

By Nina Williams-Mbengue and Kyle Ramirez-Fry
An anonymous caller alerted Arizona's child abuse hotline staff in January 1998 to the plight of five young girls, living with their mother and her boyfriend in a Phoenix weekly rate motel room. The boyfriend had hit the oldest girl on the arm, and the caller was fearful something worse might happen.

Ordinarily, this case would have gone unchecked. The child wasn't injured or bruised. And while the girls were very young, ages 2 to 12, they weren't in any immediate danger, just harshly disciplined and often left alone. Arizona's child abuse reports had jumped 37 percent the year before, so harried caseworkers were able to handle only the most serious. Nearly 5,900 cases had gone uninvestigated.

This time, however, child protective services referred the call to Family Builders-an innovative new network of community and volunteer agencies that helps with less serious cases. What these specialists found was a single mother whose teeth had been knocked out by abusive boyfriends. Her current live-in boyfriend was starting to take out his anger on her children. But she still relied on him to take care of the girls while she worked long hours at a nearby fast food restaurant. Her mouth was infected. She was tired and ill.

Although the situation didn't call for a full-blown child abuse investigation, there was no doubt the family needed help. And Family Builders could do what child protective services could not. They found a dentist willing to repair Lori Brown's (not her real name) mouth and provide a set of dentures for only $1,000. They helped Lori with parenting skills so she could discipline and care for her children in a loving, effective way. She and the girls got counseling. Eventually, Lori got away from the boyfriend and moved her family to a two-bedroom condo. Family Builders helped the children with school clothes and supplies and even got Lori's brother to help pay for the utilities in the new condo. Finally, Lori got a new and better job working during school hours as a chef at a small fish and chips restaurant owned by a friend.

SYSTEM UNDER SCRUTINY
Nearly 3 million reports of abuse come into child protection agencies each year. How they are handled has come under much criticism in recent years. Thousands of families in situations similar to Lori Brown's are reported, but, depending on the agency's workload and resources, some families receive few or no services. In other cases and other states, even well-staffed, adequately funded child welfare agencies can misread a situation and children are badly harmed or even killed.

Families that are investigated are often treated with a "one-size-fits-all" approach. Those with relatively minor problems receive the same treatment as families where there is serious physical and sexual abuse. In some states, even unconfirmed reports of abuse may put parents' names on a central child abuse registry for up to 10 years, labeling them as abusers and making it impossible to obtain licenses or jobs that involve contact with children. At the same time, lawmakers and citizens want to make sure that serious perpetrators are stopped and punished and that children are protected.

BETTER WAYS TO PROTECT CHILDREN
In recent years, as the volume and severity of cases has risen, states and localities have been struggling to find ways to better protect children and help their families. Recognizing that child protection services (CPS) can no longer handle all reports alleging abuse or neglect, policymakers are developing new ways to deal with the problem based on the severity of the maltreatment. One new approach is to allow CPS to enlist the help of families, friends, churches and community agencies to form groups like Arizona's Family Builders.

Traditionally, child protective service agencies are required to respond to reports of child maltreatment with a standard investigation that is narrowly focused on determining whether a specific incident of abuse actually occurred and if the child is at risk. Questions include: Who or what caused this injury? When did it occur? Where were you when it happened? Who else was present? Have you done this before? When was the last time you fed your children? What did they eat? How long have the children been alone? And teachers, neighbors or relatives might be asked what they saw or noticed.

The focus of the CPS investigation is on determining whether or not there is abuse and if there is a risk in the future. The same questions are asked in every situation, whether it involves a single incident of inappropriate discipline or a case of alleged abuse where a child has been seriously injured. If it is decided there is abuse, the agency develops a treatment plan for the family, may pursue criminal prosecution and may remove the child from the home. In Lori Brown's case, since there was no sign of injury or physical abuse, the caseworkers would not have gone any further and would have most likely closed the case.

But closed cases or low priority ones sometimes become serious or even fatal. Arizona's new Family Builders came into being after a series of child fatalities-there were 12 in 1997 alone-and reports that child protective services was not investigating thousands of abuse reports.

"I couldn't accept the fact that there were not enough resources to handle these cases," says Senator Ruth Solomon. "Even one child's death is unacceptable."

Solomon and former Representative Freddie Herschberger formed an ad hoc committee to look for solutions.

"We assembled not just legislators, but parents, experts, CPS people and others, and started talking about what could make things better. We looked at other states such as Missouri and Iowa and used their experiences as an outline for our model," says Herschberger.

Programs in these states, and the one Arizona ultimately developed, offer a new, flexible response to allegations of child abuse. The system gives child protection workers more time and resources to spend on the tough cases. At the same time, many other families can get help before their situations become critical.

Reports continue to come in to child protective services for screening. Questions that focus on whether or not abuse occurred and whether the child is at risk are still asked. Serious criminal offenses against children are investigated and the abuser prosecuted, often in conjunction with law enforcement.

But in low priority cases where there is no sign of immediate danger and no physical or sexual abuse-children with lice, kids left alone or begging food from neighbors, children without warm clothes or shoes-child protective services calls in a network of local community groups and volunteers such as Family Builders. Paid on a per case basis, the networks send someone to the child's home to offer help with such issues as substance abuse, parenting, discipline and anything else the workers deem necessary. For these families the new questions are: Do you need day care? Do you have family to help? Do you need a new job? Do you have a way to get to the doctor or a job interview? Do you need food or clothing? Do you get upset trying to discipline your children? Does your husband hit you or the children? If workers find that a child is in danger, the case immediately goes back to child protection or the appropriate law enforcement agency.

The new approach treats the central child abuse registry differently, as well. Families referred only for assessment services are generally not placed on the registry and so avoid much of the stigma.

Family Builders is doing an excellent job, according to Representative Laura Knaperek, chair of the House Children and Family Integrated Delivery System Committee. The new approach is helping dispel the fear many families had of child protection services, she says. "With Family Builders, the less serious cases are helped by the community, many times by people the family knows. Everyone is positive about the results."

TAKING NEW APPROACHES

Some of the first states to experiment with new approaches for handling child abuse reports were Missouri and Iowa. Both experimented with multiple response systems that assessed each case and then separated the ones requiring investigation and court involvement from those that needed only services.

In some programs, child protection workers have their offices in schools and other neighborhood buildings where families congregate. St. Louis and Cedar Rapids have programs where social workers are no longer assigned office space in state buildings downtown. Instead, their desks are in schools and neighborhood centers where they provide such services as investigation, assessment, referral and case management right next to teachers, parents, ministers, counselors and law enforcement workers. The social worker is doing his daily job in the same neighborhood places where people come for parenting classes, child care, Head Start, after-school programs, domestic violence services and public assistance.

These early efforts have inspired a number of states, including Arizona, Delaware, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, North Dakota, Oklahoma, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Washington and Texas, to craft legislation for similar programs. All involve authorizing flexible responses to reports of child abuse and neglect, assessing of family needs and increasing community involvement. Critical to the success of these programs is a network of neighborhood-based resources that can provide such things as counseling, day care, literacy classes, medical and dental help, substance abuse treatment, and other kinds of support a family might need.

Oklahoma's Representative Betty Boyd says the new methods "place emphasis on providing services to families before serious abuse or neglect occurs."

WHAT DOES IT COST?
All of these most recent state efforts were enacted between 1997 and 1999, and most of the results have yet to be assessed. Cost is still a major concern. With the exception of Arizona, which appropriated $8 million for Family Builders, most states have started their programs with little or no additional funding. Existing staff are usually reassigned and retrained to tackle new duties like determining family strengths and needs as well as locating services in the community to meet those needs. Missouri didn't use additional money to start its dual-track system, but its family services division is now requesting funds for additional caseworkers. A spokesman says they would have had to do that anyway. Other states have begun to explore using Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) funds to pay for all kinds of family services and supports, a critical component of any flexible response system.

Arizona's Family Builders contracts with community service providers such as the Arizona Baptist Children's Services, Black Family and Child Services, and local school districts that receive a lump sum for each family helped. "Legislators are impressed by the fact that Family Builders is engaging local providers and the local community," says Senator David Petersen, chairman of the Senate Family Services Committee. "We also like the fact that the providers receive a lump sum, and they have to figure out the best way to spend the money to assist a family, such as help with buying a car or paying a bill. CPS couldn't have done these things. This process gets to the source of the problem-effectively."

FUTURE DIRECTIONS
Most experts agree that the new programs are only one step in solving the problems facing child protective services. Because they are voluntary, not all families accept the offered services. Because they are new, the results aren't yet clear. So far, only Missouri has conducted a formal, outside evaluation of its pilot program. And those results were positive. Reports to the hotline decreased because there weren't as many repeat calls on the same families. Children were made safer sooner because more reports were answered. Families got needed services more quickly, and there was greater use of community resources. And the families involved were more willing to cooperate with child protective services.

Overall, questions remain on appropriate training for those doing the screening and conducting assessments, how to track families referred to community services, availability of community resources, and who will be held liable if a child is injured or killed while receiving services.

"Simply determining whether or not an act of abuse or neglect has occurred is not really protecting children," says Charles Bruner, executive director of The Child and Family Policy Center in Des Moines, Iowa. "Can we help families keep their children safe is the bigger goal. But we need policy in order to shape change. We need statutory and regulatory changes and financial help. This is a place where legislatures have an important role."

Nina Williams-Mbengue and Kyle Ramirez-Fry cover child abuse issues for NCSL.

Visit Us and Learn More

NCSL's Child Welfare Project, with assistance from the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, will be offering legislators a chance to view several of these state innovations over the next two years. If you would like to participate in a site visit, have someone come to your state to talk about these efforts or want more information on any initiatives discussed here, call Nina Williams-Mbengue or Kyle Ramirez-Fry, (303) 364-7700, or visit NCSL's Child Welfare Project's Web site at www.ncsl.org/programs/cyf/cs.htm.

What Can Legislators Do?

State lawmakers are crucial in efforts to protect children. They define child abuse and neglect, mandate who must report child maltreatment, structure and appropriate funds for child welfare agencies, and prescribe CPS functions. Lawmakers can play an important role in developing a more flexible, community-based response to abuse and neglect. They can:

Establish pilot programs
Authorize multiple responses to child abuse reports
Establish a "neighborhood place" for families
Allow workers to be stationed in a community
Reduce barriers to collaboration between CPS and the community
Mandate coordinated responses to troubled families
Appropriate money and direct TANF funds toward program development

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