risk

Nothing shakes the fabric of a child protection agency like a death caused by abuse or neglect in a family that it knew about. To the surrounding world, the agency has failed in its primary mission, keeping a child safe.

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.

Los Angeles County struggles to strike the right balance between human judgment and increasingly sophisticated predictive tools when determining the risk that a child will be abused.   On weekdays, calls to Los Angeles County’s child abuse hotline reach their peak between 2 p.m.

This Congress is certainly not going to be remembered for its ability to get things done. But when it comes to the issue of Pay for Success (PFS) and Social Impact Bonds, this summer has already produced a flurry of subtle actions, culminating with the prospect of major PFS legislation in the fall.