“A more holistic and integrated approach to child welfare services is needed, but CWLA believes that this really must happen both within and outside government to effectively reduce harm to children,” Vice President of Policy and Public Affairs at Child Welfare League of America Linda Spears told Sputnik in a statement on Wednesday.
On January 27 the Children’s Advocacy Institute of the University of San Diego School of Law published a report called “Shame on US,” which unveils that the US government failed to enforce federal welfare laws to protect children from abuse and neglect. The abuse and neglect cases are frequently not disclosed, which leads to the problems in the existing system, the report read.
“It [the report] gives us a great in to answer the last question: invest in real, evidence-based prevention to keep kids out of the system on the first place. Put child well-being front and center on the national policy agenda. And develop and enforce certain standards among all states, particularly in defining and counting maltreatment," Vice President for Research and Programs at Prevent Child Abuse America Janet Rosenzweig told Sputnik News Agency Wednesday.
CWLA also pointed that it is important to provide social workers and others who work directly with families everything they need to do the job well.
In 2012 almost 690,000 US children became victims of abuse or neglect, with 1,640 deaths, "Shame on US" report showed, highlighting that there are at least 4–5 children fatalities per day in the United States due to these causes.
