child-welfare
After pandemic drop, advocates fear spike in child abuse reports this fall | Tuesday Morning Coffee
The number of child abuse reports received dropped about 22 percent between 2019 and 2020, state data show.
New Pa. program aims to help at-risk kids stay out of foster care, group homes | Tuesday Coffee
Supporters bill the Family First Prevention Services Act as a historic step forward in protecting, promoting child welfare.
Monthly checks to flow to Pa. children, families under tax credit tweak in new federal stimulus
The sweeping legislation includes billions of dollars to support child care facilities, expand food assistance benefits, and send cash straight to families' bank accounts.
Here’s how to support abuse survivors during the COVID-19 pandemic | Opinion
Children who live in abusive households are being quarantined with their abusers, with nowhere to turn in a time of crisis.
Preventing child abuse and neglect is everyone’s responsibility | Opinion
With schools and daycares closed of the COVID-19 pandemic, it's on all of us to make sure that our children stay safe. Here's how to help.
Pa.’s child abuse hotline is now run out of employees’ homes, but receiving far fewer tips than normal
The precipitous drop in call volume is consistent with the warnings that child abuse experts sounded to the Capital-Star last month, when they said that social distancing orders put in place by the Wolf administration would cut children off from teachers, day care providers, and other adults who are mandated by law to report suspected child abuse to the authorities.
‘The perfect storm:’ How COVID-19 has multiplied the risk for children in abusive households
What’s more, the risks of spreading COVID-19 -- coupled with the restrictions that public officials have put in place to contain it -- are preventing social workers from entering homes to investigate abuse claims, they said.
House lawmakers aim to aid older foster children with free tuition, car insurance
Lawmakers in the state House said Tuesday they hope a package of bills now working its way through the chamber will help teenage foster children transition from young adulthood into maturity. “We have our own support networks in place, and we assume they’re in place for everyone,” House Majority Leader Bryan Cutler, R-Lancaster, said at […]
Here’s how we can protect Pennsylvania’s at-risk children | Opinion
By Joseph Petrarca In 2017, state Auditor General Eugene DePasquale issued a special “State of the Child” report, which provided detailed information about our state’s child-welfare system. Among its recommendations was to provide children and youth caseworkers with access to all records concerning a child who is the subject of an investigation, including medical, scholastic and […]
Glen Mills case proves Pennsylvania needs to do more to protect vulnerable kids | Opinion
Too many young people in Pennsylvania residential foster care are subjected to a pattern of abuse and maltreatment.