Child Welfare Resources

Now Available!

Complete Volumes and Sample Articles of Protecting Children

Bringing Back the Dads: Engaging Non-Resident Fathers in the Child Welfare System (Vol. 24, No. 2, 2009)

This issue of Protecting Children is dedicated to the engagement of non-resident fathers. Historically, the child welfare system has principally interacted with mothers and very little with fathers. In this issue, you will find information intended to enhance your knowledge regarding fathers’ relationships with their children, the system’s responsibility to encourage and support those relationships, and the potential that paternal relationships have to provide additional resources such as medical, emotional, financial, and other informal supports that are often unrealized and underused.

This volume has been developed as a product of the Quality Improvement Center on Non-Resident Fathers in the Child Welfare System (QIC-NRF), a national partnership between American Humane, the American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law, and the National Fatherhood Initiative.

The QIC-NRF will provide one FREE copy per individual request. Please contact info@americanhumane.org to order your free copy today!

Learn more about the QIC NRF.

The Study of Workload in Child Protective and Child Welfare Services (Vol. 23, No. 3, 2008)

Robin Perry and Steven Murphy performed a workload study of several child welfare agencies in Florida. If you are interested in the challenges of evaluating and measuring resource allocation in a privatized, and therefore varied, setting, you will find much to think about in this article. It addresses methodological questions as well, since it reports on the technique of shadowing randomly selected workers on randomly selected days, combined with the use of existing time logs and qualitative surveys.

Download the article.
Learn more about our workload projects.

Exploring Differential Response: One Pathway Toward Reforming Child Welfare (Vol. 23, No. 1-2, 2008)

This volume of Protecting Children is now available for free from American Humane (shipping charges still apply). Distinguished authors from across the country including David Thompson, Amy Conley, Mary Jo Ortiz, and Raymond Kirk, contributed to this double issue. American Humane staff including, Caren Kaplan, Lisa Merkel-Holguin, John Fluke and Amy Rohm, also made significant contributions. The issue encompasses a broad range of topics and experiences, and provides insight into the current state of differential or alternative response from a practice, policy and research perspective. Articles provide information to the field and help support efforts to understand and implement differential response as a way to reform child welfare practice.

If you would like one free copy of this volume (while supplies last), please contact American Humane at info@americanhumane.org.

Interested in an electronic copy? Download the complete volume.
Learn more about differential response.

Exposure to Violence: A Significant Issue for Children and Families (Vol. 22, No. 3-4, 2007)

This volume of Protecting Children seeks to disseminate cutting-edge knowledge from program, frontline practice, policy and research perspectives, with the ultimate goal of preventing and reducing the negative impacts of children’s exposure to violence. Articles in this double issue provide insight into children’s exposure to violence in their homes and communities, as well as report on evidence-based and promising practices, assessment tools and research findings.

Interested in an electronic copy? Download the complete volume.

The Intersection of Migration and Child Welfare: Emerging Issues and Implications (Vol. 22, No. 2, 2007)

The six articles contained in this volume discuss topical areas related to working with immigrant children and families in the child welfare system. Specifically, the articles address issues of violence in immigrant families, tools to assist with culturally competent child welfare practice, common issues for public child welfare administrators, Latino children of immigrants in the Texas child welfare system, immigrant children in federal custody, and the obstacles associated with their involvement.

Interested in an electronic copy? Download the complete volume.
Learn more about child welfare and migration.

Exploring Practice, Philosophical, and Political Complexities With the Implementation of Family Group Decision Making (Vol. 22, No. 1, 2007)

This issue of Protecting Children is dedicated to American Humane’s Family Group Decision Making (FGDM) Program. FGDM offers a new approach to working with families involved with the child welfare system. Families are engaged and empowered by child welfare agencies to make decisions and develop plans that nurture and protect their children from enduring further abuse and neglect. FGDM is an umbrella term for a number of processes that position children, youths and families as leaders in decision making.

• Download Mike Doolan’s article: Duty Calls: The response of law, policy and practice to participation right in child welfare systems
• Download Paul Nixon's article: Seen but Not Heard? Children and Young People's Participation in Family Group Decision Making: Concepts and Practice Issues

Learn more about the National Center on Family Group Decision Making.

Migration: A Critical Issue for Child Welfare (Vol. 21, No. 2, 2006)

This volume addresses child welfare concerns related to a complex and controversial topic that dominates national headlines, and discusses important emerging concerns about child and family well-being from national, transnational and interdisciplinary perspectives. It offers responses to the challenges posed to child safety, permanency and well-being in the often-difficult personal experience of migration to the United States by individuals and families. Topics include the impact of migration and acculturation on Latino children and families, risk of affective disorders in the migration and acculturation experience of Mexican migrants and Latino parenting styles.

Interested in an electronic copy? Download the complete volume.
Learn more about child welfare and migration.

Differential Response in Child Welfare (Vol. 20, No. 2-3, 2005)

This double volume of Protecting Children explores differential response, including specific issues regarding differential response implementation in small counties, ethnically diverse neighborhoods, and large, urban child welfare agencies. Numerous articles explore innovative designs and strategies for serving families whose reports do not meet a legal threshold for a formal child protective services (CPS) response. Family assessment instrumentation and data analyses from NCANDS on subsequent CPS engagement of families served through an assessment pathway are also presented. Other articles feature organizational context, design and change issues for agencies considering implementing differential response.

Download the entire volume.
Learn more about differential response.

Promising Results, Potential New Directions: International FGDM Research and Evaluation in Child Welfare (Vol. 18, No. 1-2, 2003)

This groundbreaking publication sheds light on FGDM after almost a decade of experience. This special double volume of Protecting Children offers considerable support for the advancement of FGDM and ample evidence that FGDM is making a positive difference for children, families, social workers, child welfare systems and communities. Here are some of the most definitive answers to the questions that have been posed about the impact of FGDM. The overall findings offer considerable support for the advancement of FGDM and good reasons to explore ways to mainstream its practice.

Download the entire volume.
Learn more about the National Center on Family Group Decision Making.

Combating the Workforce Crisis in Child Protective Services (Vol. 17, No. 3, 2002)

This highly pertinent volume addresses the belief that there is a workforce crisis in child protective services due to high staff turnover and vacancy, large caseloads, insufficient training and challenging work environments. In addition to providing a full reprint of the Child Protection Services Improvement Act (H.R.1371) introduced in the 107th U.S. Congress, the crisis is presented in terms of research in the areas of workload measurement and workload standards. Research-based articles analyze staffing, practices, standards and caseloads, and present data for greater accountability in social work performance.