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September 22, 2016
Greetings,
As the summer ends, our transition into fall brings a season of reform in child-serving systems. Like many of you, we here at CSSP are closely tracking key pieces of federal legislation and system reform efforts that will create major changes for the child welfare and juvenile justice systems.
With Congress taking up the Families First Prevention Services Act during its final weeks in session, there could be an overhaul of the child welfare system very soon. If passed, the legislation would fund increased front end services for families like substance abuse treatment, in-home parenting programs and mental health services with the goal of keeping more children with their parents and out of foster care. Also, House and Senate committees have approved bipartisan bills to reauthorize the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency and Prevention Act. The legislation, which a vote is anticipated on any day, stands to have key impacts on racial equity for youth and families involved with the juvenile justice system, including strengthening a core requirement focused on disproportionate minority contact.
While these pieces of federal legislation are moving through Congress, child welfare systems across the country are exploring the use of predictive analytics. This technology uses
cross-systems data, statistical algorithms and machine learning techniques
to essentially predict the future, including levels of risk for abuse and neglect. Through a series of webinars and knowledge sharing opportunities, the Alliance and its Social Service Administrators Network will explore how systems are gearing up to use predictive analytics, how we might anticipate and mitigate the potential algorithmic racial bias in its use and practices for equitable implementation that may be gleaned from other public systems.
In this season of change, we continue our efforts to deepen our partnerships with child serving systems around the country and to strengthen our network of advocates and practitioners committed to racial justice.
All the best,
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Predictive Analytics in the Child Welfare System: Starting with the Basics
The Alliance for Racial Equity in Child Welfare will host a series of webinars exploring the use of predictive analytics, including how states are designing and implementing the technology, considerations to identify and reduce racial bias and promising practices from other public systems, such as criminal justice. In the first webinar Christopher Kelleher from the Center for Evidence-based Policy and Erin Dalton from the Allegheny County Department of Human Services will discuss their efforts to develop and implement predictive analytics in their respective jurisdictions, including creating an integrated data system and effective training for front line workers. Please register
here
.
Ongoing Debate on Predictive Analytics
As the use of predictive analytics becomes more prevalent in the child welfare system, concerns about resulting racial bias also increase. Follow the ongoing debate at the
Chronicle of Social Change
.
A Better Way to Help Vulnerable Children and Families
 The Families First Prevention Services Act passed in the House of Representatives in June and is now being taken up by the Senate. As Congress approaches its final weeks in session,
Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), Congressman Kevin Brady (R-TX) and Congressman Sander Levin (D-MI), the bill's primary sponsors, wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post highlighting the benefits the bill would provide for vulnerable children and families that are involved in or at risk for involvement in the child welfare system.
Read the op-ed
here
.
Introduction of the CONNECT Act
Last month Senator Gary Peters (D-MI) and Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) introduced the Childhood Outcomes Need New Efficient Community Teams (CONNECT) Act. Supported by the Robert F. Kennedy National Resource Center, the bill was developed to improve outcomes for young people involved in both the child welfare and juvenile justice system. It amends Title IV of the Social Security Act to allow competitive grants to be awarded for collaboration between systems. More on the CONNECT Act can be found
here
.
White House Convening: Girls of Color, Trauma and School
On Monday, September 19th the White House Council on Women and Girls, The Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality, The Department of Education and The National Crittenton Foundation hosted Trauma-Informed Approaches in School: Supporting Girls of Color and Rethinking Discipline, a day-long convening that brought together educators, policymakers, researchers and other stakeholders to discuss trauma-informed disciplinary policies and practices that would lead to equity for women and girls of color. Watch the afternoon session featuring Vanita Gupta and Secretary of Education John King Jr. here.
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Accelerating Change at the United State of Women Summit: Improving the Lives of Women and Girls of Color in Public Systems
CSSP's
Accelerating Change Award (ACA)
and Fight for Our Girls series are among our latest efforts to center the impact of structural discrimination and trauma into the narrative around young women and girls of color involved in public systems. To learn more, check out our recent
blog post
detailing our focus, including highlights from our Accelerating Change Award ceremony and the United State of Women Summit.
Supporting Young Children: Addressing Poverty, Promoting Opportunity and Advancing Equity in Policy
Recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows
welcomed improvements in economic security and family well-being. However, despite these gains, there are still a significant number of children and families of color who remain in poverty. Find CSSP's take on the data
here
.
To learn more about advancing equity for young children, read CSSP's latest
blog post
.
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Join the Network
The Alliance for Racial Equity in Child Welfare has formed the Social Service Administrators Racial Equity Network to facilitate information sharing and strategy building among a community of child welfare and social service administrators committed to achieving equity for children and families involved with the child welfare system.
Through this network, child welfare and social service administrators dissect the range of effective policies and system improvement strategies that promote racial equity and improved outcomes for children and families of color. The network includes thought leaders and administrators from social service and human service systems, as each of these broader systems provides critically important supports and services.
Please contact Tashira Halyard
at the Center for the Study of Social Policy if you're interested in joining this network.
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Established in 2004, the
Alliance for Racial Equity in Child Welfare provides national leadership in support of improved outcomes for children and families of color involved with the nation's child welfare system. The Alliance is guided by a coalition of national organizations, state and local leaders, judges, researchers, practitioners, policymakers, advocates and parents, as well as alumni and youth who have directly experienced the child welfare system.
The Alliance is supported by funding from the Annie E. Casey foundation and is managed by the Center for the Study of Social Policy. |
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