The End Of Child Protection

The cascade of disappearing funding for Child Protection Services means the devaluation and diminishment of people, programs, and policies that save the lives of children.It also means that children growing up in toxic homes steeped in violence, abuse, and severe neglect are about to have the only chance they have of escaping life changing childhood trauma evaporate.

Safe Passages investigative report on child death at the hands of caregivers suggests that child deaths at the hands of parents are much more common than has ever been accounted for or made public. The Safe Passage report did not include the almost killed, suicided, and tortured children this CASA Guardian ad Litem worked with over 12 years in Child Protection work. Key fact from the report: half of the children dying at the hands of their children are babies and toddlers.

This article by Marie Cohen in the Child Welfare Monitor explains the diminishment of child welfare over the last ten years. Marie explains how the politics of parental rights and Family First are putting the final nail in the coffin (my words) of child rights in America today.

What is not in Marie’s article or made obvious in other reports explaining the speed of this devaluation of child protection is the sad reality that children have no rights in America. No standing in court to save their own lives. Children have the same rights as any other chattel. They are the property of their parents – like furniture. If you are raped, beaten, starved you need a mandated reporter to help you find safety through Child Protective Services. If you are a child bride in America, you’re stuck there until you are 18 (you are property of your husband).

The U.S. is the only nation in the world not to have ratified the United Nation’s Rights of the Child Treaty of the 1980’s. This article (linked) provided by Sterling University Student Alistair Douglas Brown lays out how other nation’s protect their children from grave harm and early death.

WHEN YOU Share KARA’s reporting with FRIENDS, INSTAGRAM & FACEBOOK

and most of all, your State Representative

(find them here)

change will come a little bit faster.

Small efforts = real results.

When enough of us become informed and

speak up for abused and neglected children,

we will improve their lives and our communities!

Snapshot of changes being made to the safety net for child protection, public health and education in Read More.

This is a snapshot of changes being made to the safety net for child protection, public health and education. Please take a few minutes and show your support for those programs and policies you know to be of value to the weakest and most vulnerable among us.

President’s Budget Request: Leaked Passback:

• New: A 64-page HHS restructuring proposal outlines sweeping cuts to US public health.
• Leaked: Administration Plans to Request Massive Cuts to HHS – CWLA
• Action Center – Tell Congress to Fully Fund Human Services

Head Start:

• Addressing Issues with the Payment Management System: A Guide for Head Start and Early Head Start Grant Recipients
• Take Action for Head Start
• Act Now: Sign This Letter to President Trump to Save Head Start – NHSA
• Head Start Advantage: Investments That Work – NHSA
• National Call to Action – NHSA
• Head Start Fact Sheets – NHSA
• Head Start Collaboration Offices | HeadStart.gov
• Update: Parent Advocacy Groups and a Coalition of Head Start Providers File Lawsuit to Stop Trump Administration’s Dismantling of Head Start | American Civil Liberties Union

Juvenile Justice:

• Exclusive: US Justice Dept grant cuts valued at $811 million, people and records say | Reuters
• Hundreds of Justice Dept. grants canceled by Trump administration – The Washington Post
• National CASA/GAL federal funding terminated
• TERMINATION NOTICE | Justice and Joy National Collaborative

Child Welfare News Sources:

• Subscribe to Child Welfare Wonk
• Child Welfare News | Substack

Other Resources:

• Newsletter Signup, Legal Center for Foster Care & Education
• 7 Ways USED Supports Students in Foster Care_4.22.25 v.2.docx
• Action Center – Higher Education Reconciliation Cuts
• ACF Regional Map (10 Regions)
• How Kids Are Harmed by Trump’s Budget Cuts, ProPublica
• Child Welfare Liability Insurance National Survey – Deadline 5/9
• Defend the Spend notification

We hope to see you next Tuesday, May 6 at 1:00pm ET for the next CWLA Connect Call. Have a great weekend.

Riva Reed

Associate Director, Membership & Conferences

Child Welfare League of America

727 15th Street, NW, Suite 1200

Washington, DC 20005

Cell: 202.961.5147 | www.cwla.org

KARA / kidsatriskaction / invisiblechildren.org