NCJ Number
224957
Journal
Protecting Children Volume: 23 Issue: 1 & 2 Dated: 2008 Pages: 88-95
Date Published
2008
Length
8 pages
Annotation
This article explores the possible connection of two significant reforms, differential response and family involvement approaches in decisionmaking that are being internationally adopted by child welfare systems, and analyzes the underpinning values of these reforms, discusses the practical and philosophical connections between them, profiles Olmsted County, Minnesota’s work in this area, and highlights some practice and policy issues for future consideration.
Abstract
Differential response in child welfare is a reform approach that enables child welfare systems to respond differentially to accepted reports of child abuse and neglect. The rationale for differential response is to offer flexibility to tailor the child protection response to the needs and circumstances of the family, to partner with families early rather than waiting for serious harm to occur, and to remove faultfinding in order to increase the possibility of family engagement and child safety. On the other hand, in the past 10 years, public child welfare and community-based organizations have been implementing numerous family involvement and case decisionmaking models as a way to provide inclusive and culturally-respectful processes when critical safety and permanency decisions are being made about children. In order to determine whether there is a good fit in the intersection of differential response systems and family involvement strategies, this article examines the values of the two domains: differential response and family involvement approaches in decisionmaking, to determine if they are consistent and complementary or in contradiction with each other. Olmsted County, Minnesota Child and Family Services adoption of the differential response approach to accepted reports of child maltreatment are presented and discussed. Table, figure, and references