On January 23, 2019, the federal government undermined best practice and the mission of child welfare. Citing the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) as justification, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) put the beliefs of adults and agencies in South Carolina’s child welfare system ahead of the needs of children and youth
In 2001, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation approached the Center for the Study of Social Policy to develop a new approach to child abuse and neglect prevention—one that would reach millions of families before there was any concern about maltreatment or involvement with the child welfare system. CSSP explored the research about what makes families thrive
Editor’s Note: DULCE (Developmental Understanding and Legal Collaboration for Everyone), an initiative of the Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP), focuses on the needs of infants and their families in the first six months of life. This pediatric care intervention proactively addresses social determinants of health and mitigates the risk factors for early
Four months after the Trump administration announced the end of its family separation policy, four-year-old Brayan, from El Salvador, was torn from his father’s arms by a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer after they crossed the border and requested asylum. When he described that moment, his father Julio broke down in tears. “I failed him,” Julio
There has been a growing interest in using data to drive change, but how is it actually used in the early childhood field to improve outcomes for children and families? To answer this question, CSSP and the National Institute of Children’s Health Quality (NICHQ) partnered to get a first-hand view of the strategies communities are
Throughout CSSP’s Strengthening Families initiative, ZERO TO THREE has been a critical partner in supporting providers to take a strengths-based, protective factors approach to families with infants and toddlers. Today we welcome a guest blog post from Julia Yeary, LCSW, ACSW, IMH-E®, Director of Military Projects at ZERO TO THREE, whose work focuses on supporting
This week the Office of the Inspector General released a report indicating that the Department of Health and Human Services has failed to ensure that staff working at facilities housing immigrant children undergo the requisite background checks. Read our full statement.
In the United States (US), young children ages birth to four are the most racially and ethnically diverse age group. This diversity should mean that policy and practice are particularly focused on serving the needs of this ever-growing, diverse population. Unfortunately, policy has not been responsive to the needs of children and families of color
As the current administration continues to consider separating families in order to further its racist immigration agenda, we have just released a report that examines the relationship between institutional racism and family separation. Entangled Roots: The Role of Race in Policies that Separate Families, analyzes the three publicly-funded systems that separate families in the United
On October 4th U.S. District Court Judge Reed O’Conner ruled in Federal Court that the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (ICWA) was unconstitutional. Subsequently he denied a stay that was requested by the Cherokee Nation and four other tribal leadership groups, who argued that allowing states to ignore ICWA, while the case moved through