ARTICLE TAG

Structured Decision Making

12/7/2017

More Than a Year After 11-Year-Old’s Death, L.A. Bets Training Will Improve Contested Risk Analysis Tool

The 2016 death of 11-year-old Yonatan Aguilar reignited a years-long debate about the strengths and weaknesses of a tool used by social workers across Los Angeles County to determine the risk a child will be abused.

5/30/2017

Risk, Not Substantiation, Should Drive Services to Families

A new report from L.A.’s Office of Child Protection (OCP), as recently reported by Daniel Heimpel in The Chronicle, recommends revising current policy to enable the Department of Child and Family Services (DCFS) to offer services to families of children at high risk, even if they do not have a substantiated allegation of maltreatment.

5/9/2017

Risky Business: A Child’s Death in L.A. Elicits More Questions than Answers

Los Angeles County, home to the nation’s largest locally-run child welfare system, is grappling with how to measure and respond to the risk that a child will be abused. At the heart of this confounding, complicated issue are two hard-to-answer questions.

Youth Services Insider

11/2/2016

L.A.’s Vulnerable Kids Caught in the Middle as the “Elephants” of Analytics Fight

“When elephants fight,” the proverb goes, “the grass gets hurt.” As Los Angeles deals with the aftermath of another child abuse tragedy, the death of Yonatan Aguilar, the debate over how to fix the system is devolving into a fight between two of the field’s “elephants.”

Youth Services Insider

11/1/2016

Yonatan’s Death Spurs Deep Look at How L.A. Gauges Child Abuse Risk

Last month, in response to news reports about the tortured life and death of a little boy, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors waded into the thorny question of how to predict child abuse.

9/22/2016

It’s Time for a Deep Look at Child Protection in Los Angeles

As a former child protection worker, I know that the death of a child is the worst possible outcome, the one that we all fear. Words can’t express the sorrow we feel when a child dies.

    Youth Services Insider
    Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration Los Angeles

    9/21/2016

    L.A. Supes Want Answers on Child Abuse Risk Assessment, Fast  

    In response to the death of an 11-year-old boy, the Los Angeles County Office of Child Protection will evaluate how the county’s child protection system measures risk and report to the Board of Supervisors in 30 days.

    9/17/2016

    L.A. Weighs Traditional Risk Assessment and Predictive Analytics in Wake of Child Death

    In response to the death of an 11-year-old boy, Los Angeles County’s Board of Supervisors will discuss a motion Tuesday that calls for a re-evaluation of how the county’s child protection system measures risk.

    Blogger Co-op

    2/3/2016

    New Strategies Long Overdue on Measuring Child Welfare Risk

    As The Imprint has been reporting over the past two years, various jurisdictions have been exploring new tools to focus the attention of child welfare systems on the children most at risk of subsequent abuse or neglect.