Youth-serving organizations take on a serious responsibility when they open their doors to children and other vulnerable people. Fulfilling that responsibility well requires two things working together: a safety culture strong enough to prevent harm, and independent investigations credible enough to find the truth when someone alleges mistreatment.
Youth Services Law covers both. Posts examine the legal landscape, practical decisions, and organizational choices that shape how schools, camps, churches, colleges, faith-based groups, and community organizations protect the people in their care and respond when something goes wrong. The goal is the same in every post: precise, useful guidance for child protection and investigations.
One very important decision for youth organizations at the start of any internal or independent investigation is which reports to keep confidential. An important part of that decision is knowing what “confidential” really means. It doesn’t help if people in the organization withhold only names while revealing other identifying information. The first step in any…
A strongly-worded opinion from the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals denied qualified immunity to a police officer who forgot the difference between the law and his opinion of parenting decisions. Megan McMurry was a teacher in Midland, Texas, and her husband was deployed to the Middle East with the National Guard. Their 14-year-old daughter…
A story from Minnesota illustrates the difficulty in recognizing when a mentor crosses the line into an inappropriate relationship with a student. Craig Hollenbeck was a legendary high school teacher in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. For many years, from all reports, he was a stellar mentor for his students. Then, in the spring semester of 2021,…
The end of one year and the beginning of the next are traditional times to review progress and make new plans. For youth organizations, it is a good time to take a close look at your policies and records to determine which ones to keep going forward. Not only will the process make your program…
Teaching children to resist abuse, particularly sexual abuse, is a very popular child protection technique. A recent scoping review of many popular programs, however, shows that few of them are in line with recent research in the child protection field. The most serious weakness that the study identified is that the key message of the…
A Texas nonprofit faces renewed investigation after its initial response to a crisis didn’t match its public records. Authorities in December 2020 charged the nonprofit’s chief financial officer, Gerald Monroe, with the sexual assault of his grandniece. The organization, Texas Foster Care and Adoption Services, said it terminated Monroe the day after the arrest. Monroe’s…
A panel of the Alabama Supreme Court recently held that a state foster care worker cannot dismiss a lawsuit stemming from fraudulent drug test results. The case is a good illustration of why mandated reporters and anyone in a youth-serving organization needs to be certain that they are covered by good insurance that will provide…
A recent investigative report raises the question of whether our mental health system prescribes to teenagers too many psychotropic medications that haven’t been tested for that age group or haven‘t been tested in combination. One reason is a cycle we have seen in other areas of medicine: a patient is prescribed one drug for a…
In a recent case lying at the intersection of parents’ rights, religious beliefs, foster care, and health care, the Georgia Supreme Court reviewed the principles for determining the sincerity of religious beliefs. The children in the case of In the Interest of C.C., were in the custody of the state Division of Family and Children…
Trigger warnings in classrooms are a beloved technique without a scientific basis. In fact, the studies that do exist indicate that trigger warnings in higher education do more harm than good. A newly-published literature review surveyed the mental health studies that are available, noting that “despite emerging momentum for the adoption of trigger warnings in…