Mandatory reporting is the first step in a troubling and common cascade: Poverty, reframed as "neglect," precipitates far too many reports, with roughly one-third of children enduring a CPS investigation. Investigated families are monitored and coerced to change their parenting (usually without support for alleviating their poverty),…

In the Republic of Ireland Section 3(1) of the Child Care Act 1991 places an obligation and legal duty upon the State child protection services "to promote the welfare of children in its area who are not receiving adequate care and protection." This article focuses on a specific element of this duty; the social worker's responsibility to…

Kimberly Howard and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn examine home visiting, an increasingly popular method for delivering services for families, as a strategy for preventing child abuse and neglect. They focus on early interventions because infants are at greater risk for child abuse and neglect than are older children. In their article, Howard and Brooks-Gunn…

"Substantiation" denotes child welfare system (CWS) services' official decision about the validity of maltreatment allegations. This decision is an important one, with implications for how much a child and family are involved with the CWS, what services they receive, and how child maltreatment is counted in state statistics. Despite the importance…

This qualitative study explored school social workers' relationships during instances of abuse and neglect reporting, focusing on reports made for children and adolescents already receiving school social work services. Although school social workers frequently file abuse and neglect reports, little is known about how they manage clinical and…

Consisting of five pages, the information sheet offers suggestions to follow when making a home visit in a suspected case of child abuse or neglect, lists the kinds of physical and behavioral forms and indicators of abuse and neglect to look for, and provides suggested responses to commonly made remarks and questions of the client during the home…

A study of 293 child abuse reports was conducted to determine if the age of the abused child affected caseworker attention. It was found that younger children received more overall services and caseworker activity and that the substantiated cases of younger children were more likely to be kept open for continuing caseworker involvement. (CR)

One of seven reports in the Innovations in Protective Services series, this document reports on the development of a model of case management that clarified what is expected from Child Protective Service (CPS) specialists. By conducting a literature review, studying the role of the CPS case manager, and developing a case management model, the Case…

The 5-page information sheet presents a brief history and background information involving the social worker and the Indian client. Also provided are lists of differences in Indian and White cultural values and kinds of practices concerning interpersonal relationships common among the Indian people, and suggestions and techniques for use by social…

Identifies factors contributing to difficulties involved in developing ethnic sensitivity training for child protective services caseworkers. Examines frameworks for training caseworkers in ethnic sensitivity. Proposes a new approach to improving caseworkers' ability to complete ethnically sensitive assessments and discusses implications of this…

A study of outcomes of child protection services for children and families in Oregon investigated the congruence between parental reports and data from case records, services parents perceived to be most helpful, and the capacity of protection services for future protection. (BB)

Seventeen of the Child Well-Being Scales were used as measures of the physical and psychological care of children. Comparisons between neglectful families and low-income control families yielded predicted differences. Composite indices showed good internal consistency. Concurrent validity was supported. Scales reliably classified neglectful and…

A special curriculum to be used in training sessions on Mexican American culture was developed to assist Texas Department of Human Resources personnel with service delivery for Mexican American children. Designed to heighten awareness in caseworkers and other personnel on the cultural variables affecting their relationship with Mexican American…