ARTICLE TAG

Child Welfare Finance Reform

5/6/2017

You Can’t Fix Child Welfare Spending with Distorted Data and Doublethink

In 1984, George Orwell defined “doublethink” as holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting them both. In child welfare, for example, we have been told for decades that child welfare systems don’t take away children because their families are poor.

5/1/2017

Child Welfare Advocates Must Unite in Push for More Federal Funds

While millions of Americans have found relief in Congress’ failure thus far to come to an agreement on legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act, this remains a perilous time at the federal level for children’s programs.

6/22/2016

The Family First Prevention Services Act: A Mixed Bag of Reform

Earlier this month, the federal Family First Prevention Services Act (H.R. 5456) was finally introduced after more than a year of hearings and behind-the-scenes work by Congressional staff. The bill has two main purposes: to bolster federal investments to prevent entries into foster care, and to reduce the number of children and youth who are placed in congregate care settings.

5/18/2016

Child Welfare’s Principal-Agent Problem: An Open Letter

Dear Daniel Heimpel, Sean Hughes and Richard Wexler, Your three-way exchange of views in The Imprint (May 4, 2016) may benefit from consideration in a larger context. The larger context is what economists and lawyers call the “principal-agent problem.”

5/4/2016

Dollars and Priorities: Data Says Spend More, Smarter

In this latest installment of our “Dollars and Priorities” series, we examine how research on child abuse and neglect could shape reform of the way the nation’s child welfare system is paid for.

5/4/2016

Child Abuse: The Not-Really-All-That-Shocking Truth

Imagine you read an article that began like this: “A reckoning is coming in gerontology. New studies show that when a group of 95-year-olds is followed for five years, a greater proportion die than when they are followed for only one.”

    1/27/2015

    America’s Failed Child Welfare System Leaves Kids Out in the Cold?

    In Chicago, two girls were trapped in abusive foster homes for years because of a clerical error. In New Mexico’s Bernalillo County, 53 child abuse and neglect cases were reported within a 58-day period, with the county on track to double the previous year’s child abuse caseload.