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.
This story from Los Angeles illustrates that even the best child protection policies do not work if staff and supervisors do not follow through. In this analysis, I’m relying on the reporter’s facts, most of which come from later police reports and depositions in a civil suit against the LA school system. According to the…
The first of the year, after the end of the holiday rush and before spring holidays kick in, is a natural time to regroup and plan ahead. It is a good time to be sure that your organization has good policies, particularly employee handbooks and child protection policies. It’s also an important time to be…
The next, and for many lawyers the most frightening, issue in deposing children is how to ask questions of children. Like many tasks, it is more frightening than difficult. Fortunately, many other people have faced this same problem, and many of them have written some very instructive manuals. Guidelines and Protocols My first recommendation always…
One popular, and many believe essential, component of child protection policies is a prevention program geared toward children. In these programs, adults explain to children how to recognize abuse and encourage them to disclose it. The field started decades ago with the well-known “Good Touch, Bad Touch” training, and today is crowded with all sorts…
The sentencing of a former child care worker on federal child pornography charges last week was the occasion for an advocacy group to express concerns about the original investigation. The part that struck me was the claim that the school responded in litigation defense mode rather than full transparency. At this point, it is impossible…
A mother in Massachusetts is still asking questions after her 6-year-old son’s school reported him to law enforcement and child protection authorities for inappropriately touching another child in his classroom. Because the two children were of different races, many advocates have used it as an example of racism. What I believe actually happened, however, is…
The Rochester Public School Board this week adopted certain controversial slogans as government speech, apparently believing that by adopting some particular statements, it can at the same time prevent opposing speech. The RPS is correct that it has a right to its own speech. The best I can tell from news reports, however, its proclamation…
Anti-bullying programs get a lot of attention these days, because everyone wants to spare children the trauma of true bullying. Yet in spite of our best efforts, the problem is not getting better, and some experts worry that we are creating new problems for our kids. One problem is that, contrary to what many parents…
The Secret Service Threat Assessment Center recently issued a report analyzing 67 failed plots by students against their schools. Although there was plenty in the report for the predictable policy groups to tout (restrict access to guns, increase mental health interventions), there are several important points for schools and other youth-serving organizations to consider. Those…
One thing that has become clear during the pandemic is that rates of mental health problems and suicide among our children have skyrocketed. As youth organizations open back up, we are likely to encounter quite a few children whose anxiety and depression reach levels that, in the words of federal nondiscrimination law, “limit one or…