CAPTA

Legislation to reauthorize the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) is moving through Congress, with the U.S. House of Representatives passing a version out of committee and the U.S. Senate marking up their version last month. 

The Los Angeles Times and columnist Steve Lopez launched a critically important series on child poverty Sunday. Replete with both haunting and inspiring photos taken by the talented Francine Orr, readers are introduced to Telfair Elementary School in Pacoima, which has the inauspicious designation of “having more homeless students than any other in the district.”

Last week, Congress passed and the President signed into law the Family First Prevention Services Act. It is an encompassing and complex piece of legislation that will take some time for states to figure out in terms of the opportunities, as well as the data collection, reporting, accountability and state plan requirements that accompany those opportunities.

Fifty years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court provided a blanket of protection against railroading youth involved in the juvenile justice system. Seven years later, Congress attempted to do the same for children involved in child welfare proceedings.

In 2001, graduate assistant Mike McQueary followed Penn State protocol when, after witnessing retired football coach Jerry Sandusky molesting a boy in a locker room shower, he told Coach Joe Paterno and two other superiors what he saw. 

“1 month, 12 days died suddenly.” The obituary of Brayden Cummings provided a wake-up call about the most vulnerable and forgotten victims of the heroin and prescription opioid epidemic. Brayden was born physically dependent on opioids.

Today, a White House-appointed commission created to end child abuse and neglect fatalities delivered a lengthy set of recommendations bent on re-orienting all the public systems that touch children towards child safety.

In contrast to recent criticism of the state’s inattention to opioid addiction in new mothers, Philadelphia is home to two treatment programs addressing this very problem. An investigative report released by Reuters and NBC News in December claims that child welfare policymakers have largely neglected infant and toddler deaths due to substance abuse.

This analysis is part of The Imprint’s series entitled: “Dollars and Priorities: The Financing of Child Welfare.” As I begin this series analyzing efforts to change how the federal government finances the country’s child welfare systems, the Title IV-E Waiver Demonstration (“waiver”) program seems like a natural place to start.