CASA are everyday citizens, who judges appoint to advocate for the safety and well-being of children who have been, removed from their homes due to parental abuse and neglect. They stand up for these children and change their lives. CASA volunteers have helped more than two million children find safe, permanent homes. The National CASA association is a network of 955 programs that are recruiting, training and supporting volunteers to represent the best interests of abused and neglected children in the courtroom and other settings.
The paper will focus on the laws, barriers that might prevent families from seeking out an organization such as CASA. Options that may decrease those barriers, philosophy on being a human service professional working with children and families, as well look at values, culture and biases.
First, we look at laws that influence the funding pertaining to CASA, according to the Advocacy Academy Manual (2009), in the seventies, the United States Congress became aware that the child welfare system was not adequately protecting children and their families. In seventy – four Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) Public Law 93-247, amended in 1996, created the national center on child abuse and neglect, and earmarked federal funds for states to establish special programs for child victims of abuse or neglect. The law requires that states, have child abuse and neglect reporting laws, investigate reports of abuse and neglect, educate the public about abuse and neglect; provide a guardian ad litem to every abused or neglected child whose case results in a judicial proceeding(Advocacy Academy Manual, 2009).
As a CASA worker, there are other federal laws that have an impact on child abus...
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...th. Retrieved January 17, 2008 from www.afriprov.org/
http://www.casaforchildren.org/site/c.mtJSJ7MPIsE/b.5453887/k.7340/Organizational_Profile.htm
National Indian Child Welfare Association Retrieved July 17, 2011from
www.nicwa.org
The Indian Child Welfare Act and CASA/GAL Volunteers: Advocating for the Best Interests of Native Children Retrieved July 17, 2011from http://www.casanet.org/download/tribal-casa/0709_icwa_and_volunteer_0012.pdf
US Department of Health and Human Services Retrieved July 17, 2011from
www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/pubs/ij_adopt/support.htm.
Wall, Mr Justice (1997) Strengthening Inter agency Links and Keeping Children in Focus. Workshop Papers, Department of Health, London. Retrieved July 17, 2011from http://web.ebscohost.com.lib.kaplan.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=ee2b0c8b-14c1-4277-afce-2e22cef92a4e%40sessionmgr10&vid=19&hid=119
Child abuse and neglect incidence rates are approximately ten times higher than the incidence rates for cancer. The incident rates for child abuse and neglect are 40 children per 1,000 children every year. The incidence rates for cancer patients are 3.9 people per 1,000 people every year. According to Frank Putnam (2005), “We find an incidence rate for child abuse and neglect that is about ten times as high as the incidence rate for all forms of cancer…There is a multi-billion-dollar research base reliably renewed on an annual basis for cancer treatment and prevention. Nothing remotely similar to this exists for child abuse and neglect” (p. 1). The 2001 federal fiscal year budget was $3.74 billion for the National Cancer Institution. Between all of CAPTA’s grants combined, the total of monetary governmental support comes to approximately $72 million. While cancer research is an incredible thing, child abuse and neglect programs should be well funded in order to help more children. In addition to more children being helped, if funding for abuse awareness increased, there would possibly be more jobs open for social workers and other types of advocates. (The Leadership Council on Child Abuse and Interpersonal Violence, 2005).
Judge David Soukup's nightly ponderings led to the inception of the Court Appointed special Advocate (CASA) program, which specially trains volunteers to provide a voice for children in dependency and custody cases. Today, CASA is a national organization that has 50,000 community volunteers who advocate for children's rights across 49 states.
CAPTA focuses on the issue of child abuse and neglect within the U.S. CAPTA was one of the first major federal policies put into effect to address the issue of child abuse and neglect in the U.S. Prior to the development of this act, information is very limited on how child abuse really affected the children in the U.S. Within the first year of CAPTA 60,000 reports of child abuse and neglect were made and within a few years, these numbers had made a large jump to over a million reports in 1980. In 1990, 2 million reports were made, and in 2000, reports were somewhere around 3 million (CAPTA Reauthorization, 2016). In 2005 alone out of every 1000 children 12 children from birth to 18 had experienced some abuse and neglect. The 2005 report stated that 62.8 percent were cases of neglect, 16.6 percent were cases of physical abuse, 9.3 percent were cases of sexual abuse, 7.1 percent were cases of emotional, 2 percent were cases of medical neglect or abuse, and 14.3 percent were other situations of neglect or abuse. Overall that year 1,460 deaths were reported from child abuse and neglect (Goldman & Salus, 2003). But in 2010, 698,000 reports were confirmed of abuse and neglect, which is a dramatic decrease due to the policies
For the purpose of this paper the social worker interviewed is Ronnita Waters, MSW, RCSWi; she is currently an operations manager at the Center for Family and Child Enrichment (CFCE). The issue or area where her advocacy skills are practiced is within child welfare. Mrs. Waters mentions to the interviewee “I always wanted to work with children, then eventually for children.” when asked what developed her interest in this area of social work. Furthermore, before she became an operations manager, the social worker was an adoptions supervisor, overseeing adoption case managers and ensuring the proper implementation of policies such as the sibling placement policy and adoption policy. In addition, before achieving the role of supervisor, she was
The history of Indian Child Welfare Act derived from the need to address the problems with the removal of Indian children from their communities. Native American tribes identified the problem of Native American children being raised by non-native families when there were alarming numbers of children being removed from their h...
The history of Indian Child Welfare Act derived from the need to address the problems with the removal of Indian children from their communities. Native American tribes identified the problem of Native American children being raised by non-native families when there were alarming numbers of children being removed from their h...
The child welfare system in United States uses a dominant colonial approach to how the child welfare system is applied. They are based on the foundations of patriarchal ideology. When approaching child welfare the attention is mostly given to the families and individual blame occurs, this may reflect the way the systems are designed, operating from a liberal ideology. Furthermore, in the process of child protection family service systems are exposed to the use of formal coercion and contested court involvements, although this is considered a last resort and avoided, if possible. Typically, after a child maltreatment report, the allegation is investigated and assessed for degree of state interven...
Copyright (c) 1999 West Virginia Law Review West Virgina Law Review, Winter, 1999, 102 W. Va. L. Rev. 477, 13457 words, STUDENT WORK: Changing the Law in Child Abuse and Neglect Proceedings: An Improvement on Improvement Periods?, Morgan E. Persinger
All the benefits provided by CAPTA are important, but one highly important benefit CAPTA provides for infants and children is that all allegations of child abuse and neglect must be investigated to ensure the well-being and safety of every infant and child. After allegations of child abuse and neglect are reported an investigation is the next step in protecting every child. Another benefit of CAPTA for infants and children is that if the heart wrenching experience of child abuse or neglect occur the state CPS systems and private organizations are trained and prepared to provide treatment for the child. In a like manner, CAPTA provides benefits for women and families by providing support and services that address domestic violence. CAPTA also promotes family involvement in all aspects of a CPS case involving child abuse and neglect. The states benefit by the foundation that CAPTA sets regarding the functioning of CPS systems and in a financial aspect. CAPTA provides funding to “Support child abuse and prevention activities by funding discretionary grants to states and/or public or private agencies or organizations” (California Department of Child Services, 2011). Everyone benefits when CPS systems according to CAPTA policies, “The act’s sponsors meant to feature three important themes of CPS reform in these amendments, including encouraging the involvement of family members in a child welfare agency’s decisions process; promoting and enhancing COS collaboration with domestic violence services and substance abuse treatment programs, and increasing the use of differential response by states through the use of noninvestigative/nonaccusatory approach to responding to reports of child maltreatment” (American Bar Association,
In 1974, the United States Congress passed an act that would provide the necessary laws and regulations that would protect those who have become victims of child abuse and neglect. According to this policy was meant to: “provide financial assistance for a demonstration program for the prevention, identification, and treatment of child abuse and neglect” (CAPTA of 1974 P.L. 93-247). This law became known as Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act. The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act was first amended in 1974 and became known as CAPTA. However, over the years CAPTA has been amended several times. When CAPTA was amended on June 25, 2003 it became part of the Keeping Children and Families Safe Act of 2003. The most recent amendment of the law was on December 1, 2010 (Public Law 108-36) (About CAPTA: A Legislative History). By definition, which was established in 1974, CAPTA is defined as “the physical or mental injury, sexual abuse, negligent treatment, or maltreatment of a child under the age of eighteen by a person who is responsible for the child’s welfare under circumstances which indicate tha...
When children are hurt physically, emotionally, or sexually it is known to be child abuse. Children are known to be neglected when they are not getting the proper attention needed for children. When children are neglected or abused in any way it is the responsibility of others to report such acts to the authorities as to what they have witnessed first-hand or signs of abuse or neglect seen after the fact, these people who reports such acts are known as third parties. The proper authorities to report child abuse or neglect is called Child Protected Services also known as Child Welfare. After the abuse or neglect is reported the proper authorities will then investigate to see if the abuse or neglect is legit or fraudulent (Sedlak, 2001).
The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) helps our communities guard our children, disabled and our elderly from abuse and neglect. This agency also helps protect the children in foster homes or any 24-hour child facility. The consultants provide intense investigations and prevention programs before placing a child in a new home. Texas Child Protective Services, also known as CPS, has five main goals which include: investigating reports of abuse and neglect of children, providing services to children and families in their home, placing children in foster care, providing services to help youth in foster care make a transition to adulthood, and placing our childr...
The Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) was as a response to growing concerns about “foster care drift”; that is, children experiencing multiple, unstable foster care placements over extended periods, children virtually lost within the child welfare system (Rockhill, 2007). The ASFA has become a very important and much needed policy that helped with placement and safet...
Downs-Whitelaw, S., Moore, E., &McFadden, E. J. (2009). Child welfare and family services: Policies and practice, USA: Parson Education Inc.
In response to this social issue, the first federal child welfare policy Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) was signed into law by President Nixon in 1974. According to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Child article 19, “all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measure to protect the child from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse, while in the care of parent(s), legal guardian(s) or any other person who has the care of the child” (Detrick, 1999). CAPTA governs Child Protective Services programs across the country supporting...