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Last fall, in a cramped interrogation room, a NYPD detective read a 17-year-old his Miranda rights and asked whether he was willing to answer questions. Sitting next to the boy was his mother.

During a recent training, a judge showed us a glimpse of his future courtroom and what awaits us when juvenile courts reopen. A plexiglass shield will separate the judge from the litigants.

The Seattle-based Casey Family Programs has awarded six people with an Excellence for Children Award, an honor given out each year by the foundation to recognize “exceptional work and advocacy for children and families impacted by the child welfare system.”

For the past three decades I have been involved in the development of family resource centers, community-based facilities that serve as a gateway to critical supports and services for families. They existed long before I began that work, and our social work profession was founded on the back of settlement houses that were part of a broader reform movement starting with Jane Addams in 1889.

“Your father is as worthless as your mother.” Those words – said by a caseworker to a 13-year-old child whose parents were addicted to heroin – jumped out at me as I read the case file.

As a field, we are fond of saying that child abuse and neglect cross all economic strata, but we know that it is not reported or handled equally or proportionally across all strata, as reflected by the children and families involved in the child welfare system.

Caylee showed up for her first court date where the juvenile court reviewed the neglect allegations related to substance abuse filed against her by the Department of Human Services. The judge ordered a removal of Caylee’s newborn baby and placed the baby with a family friend in temporary kinship care.

New York, like every other state, has until 2021 to implement major federal child welfare reforms that incentivize keeping more families together after abuse or neglect claims, and disincentivized the use of group homes and residential care.

Just before the holidays, and amidst the contentious impeachment proceedings, both parties and both chambers hammered out a spending deal for fiscal 2020 that was then signed by President Donald Trump.