Rethink process for families in crisis

Gazette Editorial Board--In child protection, as in medicine, the treatment should be less harmful than the disease.But, as a recent series of Gazette reports found, there is evidence that a “culture of caution” is leading the Iowa Department of Human Services in at least some Iowa counties to unnecessarily remove children from their families or deny them a chance to go back home.Even if well-intentioned, unnecessary removals are not only traumatic for children, siblings, parents and extended family, they fly in the face of some of our most fundamental American beliefs.The courts consistently have upheld parents' constitutional right to raise their own children. Unless there is a clear and compelling reason to deny that right, the state must find other ways to intervene.Luckily, other states have paved the way - drafting child protective services reforms that allow significantly more at-risk children to stay with their families while remaining safe.Figures from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families show that nationally, the number of children in foster care dropped more than 20 percent from 2002-10.In states that have overhauled child protective services, figures are even more astounding.Take Florida, which had nearly 32,000 children in foster care on a snapshot day in 2002, but fewer than 19,000 children in care on the same day a scant eight years later.Closer to home, agencies in states like Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin also have implemented affordable, common-sense reforms that have dramatically reduced the number of children in foster care while improving child safety.Then there's Iowa, where the number of children in foster care is actually up 25 percent from 2002-10. A recent institutional analysis of DHS cases in Linn County by the non-profit Center for the Study of Social Policy revealed an alarming failure of child protective workers to distinguish between a child who is being abused and a child who may be at risk for future harm. Those findings would be familiar to families in any number of Iowa counties.Child removal cases can be complex, involving shifting conditions and conflicting stories. No one wants to make a mistake that leaves a child vulnerable to abuse. But it's also a mistake to think that foster care is the only - or even the preferable - solution in cases where children are not in immediate danger of harm.That means rethinking services for families in crisis. But it doesn't mean starting from scratch.The National Conference of State Legislatures has made a number of recommendations for legislative action to safely reduce out-of-home placements and length of foster care stays, to reduce racial and ethnic disproportionality and disparate outcomes for children of color in foster care.Right here in our own backyard is the National Resource Center for In-Home Services, located at the University of Iowa School of Social Work, which provides training and technical assistance to states and tribes that want to do a better job keeping at-risk kids safe at home.Even funding, traditionally a barrier to home-based programming, could soon become available with the passing of a bill that will allow some states to use federal foster care funds for child abuse prevention and family preservation, easing the strain on tight state budgets.No one can argue that reforming Iowa's child protective system will be easy - one reformer likened it to fixing a bicycle while riding it - but it may never be a better opportunity than now.And every day we wait, we risk more children being harmed.Not by an abuser, but by our own attempts to protect them.n Comments: thegazette.com/category/opinion/editorial oreditorial@sourcemedia.net

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In child protection, as in medicine, the treatment should be less harmful than the disease.

But, as a recent series of Gazette reports found, there is evidence that a “culture of caution” is leading the Iowa Department of Human Services in at least some Iowa counties to unnecessarily remove children from their families or deny them a chance to go back home.

Even if well-intentioned, unnecessary removals are not only traumatic for children, siblings, parents and extended family, they fly in the face of some of our most fundamental American beliefs.

The courts consistently have upheld parents' constitutional right to raise their own children. Unless there is a clear and compelling reason to deny that right, the state must find other ways to intervene.

Luckily, other states have paved the way - drafting child protective services reforms that allow significantly more at-risk children to stay with their families while remaining safe.

Figures from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families show that nationally, the number of children in foster care dropped more than 20 percent from 2002-10.

In states that have overhauled child protective services, figures are even more astounding.

Take Florida, which had nearly 32,000 children in foster care on a snapshot day in 2002, but fewer than 19,000 children in care on the same day a scant eight years later.

Closer to home, agencies in states like Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin also have implemented affordable, common-sense reforms that have dramatically reduced the number of children in foster care while improving child safety.

Then there's Iowa, where the number of children in foster care is actually up 25 percent from 2002-10. A recent institutional analysis of DHS cases in Linn County by the non-profit Center for the Study of Social Policy revealed an alarming failure of child protective workers to distinguish between a child who is being abused and a child who may be at risk for future harm. Those findings would be familiar to families in any number of Iowa counties.

Child removal cases can be complex, involving shifting conditions and conflicting stories. No one wants to make a mistake that leaves a child vulnerable to abuse. But it's also a mistake to think that foster care is the only - or even the preferable - solution in cases where children are not in immediate danger of harm.

That means rethinking services for families in crisis. But it doesn't mean starting from scratch.

The National Conference of State Legislatures has made a number of recommendations for legislative action to safely reduce out-of-home placements and length of foster care stays, to reduce racial and ethnic disproportionality and disparate outcomes for children of color in foster care.

Right here in our own backyard is the National Resource Center for In-Home Services, located at the University of Iowa School of Social Work, which provides training and technical assistance to states and tribes that want to do a better job keeping at-risk kids safe at home.

Even funding, traditionally a barrier to home-based programming, could soon become available with the passing of a bill that will allow some states to use federal foster care funds for child abuse prevention and family preservation, easing the strain on tight state budgets.

No one can argue that reforming Iowa's child protective system will be easy - one reformer likened it to fixing a bicycle while riding it - but it may never be a better opportunity than now.

And every day we wait, we risk more children being harmed.

Not by an abuser, but by our own attempts to protect them.

n Comments: thegazette.com/

category/opinion/editorial or

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