Frank Vandervort

I keep a bumper sticker on the shelf in my office that reads: “It’s NEVER OK to HIT A CHILD.” A few weeks ago, a colleague ­– a wonderful, kind woman with an Ivy League education who is the mother of three boys – was in my office.

Those who advocate for the wider use of Differential Response (DR) in child welfare do so from a flawed set of assumptions. The most common are that children’s protective services (CPS) professionals are hostile to families; that children are routinely removed from their parents’ custody without good cause; and that all families can safely provide for their children.

Minnesota responds to three in ten reports of child abuse. Could a policy that precludes consideration of prior allegations be to blame? Faced with serious concerns about its response to reports of child abuse, Minnesota’s Department of Human Services (DHS) will consider amending a critical line in its guidance on child abuse screening this summer.