Safety Permanency & Well-being

Child Maltreatment

All 50 states, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia have child abuse and neglect reporting laws that mandate certain professionals and institutions refer suspected maltreatment to a child protective services (CPS) agency. Each state has its … Read More

Sowing The Seeds Of Hope: Keeping Children Safe with Families

The Beginnings of Child Protection Systems To understand just how far we have come in our approach to child safety, it is helpful to look back at the foundation of our current system.  Our national child protection system emerged from … Read More

Legal Representation in Child Welfare Proceedings

Benefits of high-quality legal representation READ MORE

Safe Haven Annual Report February 2025

Pursuant to Louisiana Children’s Code – Article 1160 Introduction and Background As required by Louisiana Children’s Code, Article 1160, the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) is submitting this report to both the House and Senate Committees on Health … Read More

TPR Issue Spotter

The TPR Issue Spotter is designed to assist attorneys challenging the termination of parental rights (TPR) by highlighting significant state Supreme Court and appellate decisions that have upheld parental rights. It is not comprehensive but focuses on cases that exemplify … Read More

Military Families and the Courts – Bench Card Resource Packet

Families and couples with active-duty service members live in every community across the country, and not just in locations with military installations nearby. By virtue of their military connection and employment, active-duty personnel have unique priorities, resources, rights, constraints, and … Read More

Catalog of Core Child Welfare Case Management Reports for Courts 2024

This publication provides brief descriptions of various reports and their importance in a court’s Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) efforts in child welfare cases; general specifications regarding how the reports can be constructed, including templates with insights on how to display … Read More

The Adolescent Brain, Stress And Systems That Support Young People

On the lat­est episode of Cas­ey­Cast, Foun­da­tion Pres­i­dent and CEO Lisa Law­son talks with UCLA psy­chol­o­gy pro­fes­sor Adri­ana Galván, whose pio­neer­ing research on the ado­les­cent brain has shaped how pol­i­cy­mak­ers, edu­ca­tors and youth-serv­ing sys­tems under­stand this crit­i­cal stage of development. Galván — dean of under­grad­u­ate … Read More

Strategies to Increase Survey Response Rates From Youth

Sex education programs for youth are often designed to promote positive sexual and reproductive health (SRH) behaviors by giving youth the knowledge, skills, and self-efficacy to make healthy decisions about sexual activity and contraceptive use. Rigorous testing of these and … Read More

Child Welfare: Purposes, Federal Programs, and Funding

Child Welfare: Purposes, Federal Programs, and Funding Children depend on adults—usually their parents—to protect and support them. The broadest mission of public child welfare agencies is to strengthen families so that children can depend on their parents to provide them … Read More