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  • Decision-Making in Child Protection

Decision-Making in Child Protection

Child protection professionals make critical decisions throughout the life of a case that have a significant impact on children and families. Child protection workers may have to evaluate or make decisions related to risk, safety, case opening, substantiation, removal, and reunification. When a case of alleged child maltreatment is received, the child protection agency must complete a comprehensive assessment that is presented to the court. The court then checks in periodically to monitor case plan progress, determine whether maltreatment was substantiated, assess risk, and decide on an intervention using offered services.

Child protection staff must also be aware of the impact that disproportionality and racial disparities may have on families involved with child welfare. It is important that child protective services professionals work to understand their personal biases and learn how bias may knowingly or unknowingly impact decision-making. They should ensure their decisions are driven by ethics and safety while focusing on the goal of providing support to families. It is essential for child protection staff to partner with parents, work to empower families, and aim to make families stronger.

If you want to explore tools to enhance decision-making during the child protection process, use these resources, which include State and local examples.

Decision-Making in Child Welfare for Improved Safety Outcomes
Capacity Building Center for States (2017)
Reviews current research around decision science and safety decision-making practices in child welfare to raise awareness regarding decision-making challenges and strategies for improved safety outcomes. This brief provides an overview of relevant child welfare safety assessment tools and decision-making theories and frameworks to expand agency knowledge on safety decision-making issues.

How Can We Ensure That Separating Children From Their Families Is an Intervention of Last Resort? 
Casey Family Programs (2020)
Discusses findings from a research study on child protection removal decisions that concludes that these decisions are based on inconsistent standards and are often applied disproportionately, resulting in unnecessary trauma for children and families. The article argues for revisiting the standards for removal. 

Showcase: Safety Outcomes and Decision-Making Approaches (PDF - 198 KB)
Capacity Building Center for States (2017)
Provides jurisdictions with information for States on models and approaches for targeting safety outcomes. 

Team Decision Making: Key Resources for Assessing Child Risk and Safety
Annie E. Casey Foundation (2019)
Explores the Team Decision Making approach, which brings together child welfare staff, parents, family members, and community members to discuss safety and evaluate family strengths to develop a plan for moving a case forward.

That Which Is Essential Has Been Made Invisible: The Need to Bring a Structural Risk Perspective to Reduce Racial Disproportionality in Child Welfare (PDF - 1,085 KB)
Feely & Bosk (2021)
Race and Social Problems, 13
Examines efforts in the child welfare system to control for racial bias in child protection through the Structured Decision-Making model. The study also suggests a new framework for thinking about risk and calls for a revisioning of assessment of risk decisions in child welfare.

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State and local examples

Better Decisions for Better Results: How Two Counties Are Improving the Quality and Consistency of Child Protection Investigations
Annie E. Casey Foundation (2019)
Presents information on how two county agencies applied a quality-improvement process to improve their child protection decision-making processes and achieve better outcomes for children and families.

How Did the Blind Removal Process in Nassau County, N.Y., Address Disparity Among Children Entering Care?
Casey Family Programs (2021)
Discusses a method used by one county in New York to reduce racial disparities in decision-making by introducing a blind removal process. Using this process, investigators receive case files without any demographic information such as names, races, ethnicities, or addresses that may illicit bias.

Implicit Bias in Child Welfare: Overcoming Intent
Beniwal (2017)
Connecticut Law Review, 365
Examines the implicit bias and the disproportionate representation of people of color in Connecticut's child welfare system and discusses child protection that contribute to bias along with how to address the problem. 

Making Decisions in Child Welfare (PDF - 522 KB)
North Carolina Division of Social Services and the Family and Children’s Resource Program (2017)
Practice Notes, 22(2)
Provides information on available supports for professionals who are looking for new ways to ensure they make fair and well-informed decisions that will have the best outcomes for the children and families.

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Spotlight On

Episode 28: Family Group Decision-Making: Becoming a Family-Centered Agency [Podcast]

Child Welfare Information Gateway (2018)

inSIGHT: A Workshop on Implicit Bias for Child Protection Workers (PDF - 206 KB)

Center for the Study of Social Policy (2019)

The Structured Decision Making Model in Child Protection

National Council on Crime and Delinquency

Related Content

Family Group Decision-Making

Safety and Risk Assessment

Structured Decision-Making

Disproportionality

Racial Equity Resources for Child Welfare Professionals

Racial Equity Resources for Child Welfare Systems

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