PPC testifies before state's Task Force on Child Protection |
Though Pennsylvania was among the first states to use a differential response approach to investigating child abuse, other states that followed our lead now might have practices worth replicating in the commonwealth.
That was the message Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children President and CEO Joan Benso offered at the May 3 meeting of the state's Task Force on Child Protection.
"Our approach to responding to reports of child abuse and neglect was an innovative approach when it was first implemented in our state and it is something we should refine rather than abandon," Benso told the task force in her testimony. "More and more states are implementing this approach because they recognize it is a better method of working with families to ensure children are safe. But that doesn't mean practice and policy improvements cannot be made to fine tune and improve our system."
Differential response involves using multiple doors or pathways to respond to reports of child abuse and neglect. Pennsylvania uses two doors, known as Child Protective Service (CPS) and General Protective Service (GPS). CPS uses a more urgent timeframe for response, similar to that of a law enforcement investigation, and focuses on whether abuse has occurred and who might have perpetrated the abuse. In GPS, the primary goal is identifying family issues that might be impacting child safety and well-being and providing services to address those issues. Pennsylvania provides 4.5 times more service to children through GPS than CPS.
About 20 states followed Pennsylvania's lead in adopting a differential response approach, and some of those states use three or four "doors" for handling abuse reports.
"There's a common-sense reason for these multiple doors or pathways: Different family situations necessitate different interventions," Benso told the task force. "The child welfare system needs multiple approaches to work with families and a traditional CPS investigation is not always the best choice."
PPC recommended that the task force delve deeper into the lessons learned by other states that use differential response to examine the best combination of policy, practice, workforce development, evaluation and funding required to improve, rather than abandon, Pennsylvania's differential response system.
Here are some of the themes from the presentations and discussion at the May 3 task force meeting:
• Pennsylvania's child protection law has expanded over the years, putting greater demands on child welfare agencies.
• There is a need for better statewide tracking and real-time use of data to guide decision making at the family and systems levels.
• There is a difference of opinion about how perpetrators are defined, with some believing all child maltreatment should be considered "child abuse" regardless of perpetrator, while others express serious concern that such an approach would vastly expand the role of child protection agencies beyond families/caregivers.
• Consideration should be given to amending Pennsylvania's child abuse definition, particularly related to "severe pain" threshold.
The 11-member task force, formed in the wake of the Penn State child sex-abuse scandal, is charged with identifying ways to improve child abuse reporting, strengthen laws relating to child abuse, and train appropriate people in reporting abuse. It is expected to issue a final report with recommendations by Nov. 30.
The task force's next meeting is scheduled for Monday, May 14, in Harrisburg. The agenda for that task force meeting can be found here.
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