Child Welfare

Guide To Authentic Youth Leadership and Collaboration

Introduction This guide was created for youth and young adult leaders, catalysts, and advocates – as well as the adult collaborators that support this work. Although not all-encompassing, it is meant to serve as a template for developing and sustaining … Read More

Online Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation: Current and Emerging Threats

Introduction The proliferation of online child sexual abuse and exploitation presents a serious threat to children globally. In 2023, the US National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) received over 36.2 million reports of suspected child sexual exploitation, which … Read More

The 2023 Federal Human Trafficking Report

INTRODUCTION The methods used by traffickers to recruit, coerce, and exploit victims of trafficking are ever-changing. For this reason, we turn to data to help us better understand how traffickers operate and to create informed and targeted solutions to protect … Read More

Police in Schools: The Complicated Impact on Students, School Environments, and the Juvenile Courts

Having police officers in schools (school resource officers – SROs) is controversial with a growing debate as their presence has proliferated nationally over the past twenty years. A majority of high schools and middle schools today have police on campus … Read More

Webinar Explores Strategies for Engaging Lived Experience Experts of Human Trafficking and Domestic and Sexual Abuse

Futures Without Violence, a health and social justice nonprofit dedicated to preventing and ending violence against women and children, recently held a roundtable webinar on the value of collaborating with lived experience experts of human trafficking, domestic violence, and sexual … Read More

Study Examines Models for Supporting Immigrant Families in Child Welfare

Child welfare agencies can face challenges meeting the complex needs of immigrant families. This population has grown steadily in the United States over the last several decades, and while there is no system wide approach to effectively serving immigrant families, … Read More

Sexual Cyberbullying Research Summary

Purpose Sexual cyberbullying is any sexually aggressive or coercive behavior facilitated by electronic media. Professionals who support youth experiencing the child welfare and/or juvenile justice system, homelessness, and/or disconnection from school and work (i.e., opportunity youth) identified a need for … Read More

State Child Welfare Data Linkages Descriptive Study Technical Report: Study Background and Design

Introduction The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA), first authorized in 1974 and reauthorized regularly since then, requires the examination of a wide range of topics related to the incidence of child abuse and neglect with the aim of … Read More

Empowering Young People in Foster Care: How Technology Supports Aging-Out Transitions

For young people, aging out of foster care is a significant step in their life journey. These young adults now find themselves on the brink of independence, sometimes without a ready support system or accessible resources to help them as … Read More

Developments in Interstate Compact Law and Practice 2022

The year 2022 was an interesting year for interstate compacts. While there were no blockbuster judicial decisions, one was decided in 2023. New York v. New Jersey, an original jurisdiction case filed at the beginning of 2022, involved a question … Read More