Reviewing Child Protection Policies

One question that I often hear from child care centers is whether we are required to report sexual play between children. As usual, the question is “it depends.” Some types of sexual play are normal and developmentally appropriate, and warrant nothing more than redirection and teaching about social norms. Other types can be signals of…

A nonprofit legal group‘s lawsuit highlights how mandated reporter laws can interact with overbroad abuse registry laws to actively harm children. I don’t know whether the facts of the case will bear out the complaint’s allegations that people are placed on the registry without notice or that the process of being removed from the registry…

A pattern that shows up very often in studies of resilience is a high correlation between resilience and self-esteem. It would be very easy to conclude that, if we help children develop self-esteem, we can also increase their resilience. These studies, however, only measure correlation, not causation. Furthermore, other studies of self-esteem indicate that it…

The problems in Texas foster care persist, as does the federal court case involving children without places to go. The parties now have agreed to a panel of three experts, who are supposed to learn everything about this complex problem and provide recommendations in less than two months.   The State of Texas already has…