National Coalition for Child Protection Reform

WELCOME TO NCCPR

The members of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform have encountered the child welfare system in their professional capacities. Through NCCPR, we work to make that system better serve America’s most vulnerable children by trying to change policies concerning child abuse, foster care and family preservation.

FOR THOSE WHO FIND THIS COLOR SCHEME DIFFICULT TO READ, THE SAME MATERIAL NOW IS AVAILABLE ON OUR ALTERNATE HOME PAGE AND LINKS

NCCPR ADVOCATES FOR SYSTEMIC REFORM. WE REGRET THAT WE CANNOT PROVIDE ASSISTANCE IN DEALING WITH INDIVIDUAL CASES.

If you’d like to help us reform child welfare systems, please CLICK HERE to donate to NCCPR through Network for Good. Thank you.

WHAT’S NEW

The WordPress “Follow” function will NOT work with this website. We use this template as our main website, so updates are relatively infrequent. Instead, please check the NCCPR Child Welfare Blog for updates to the material on this site.

THE NCCPR CHILD WELFARE BLOG AND MEDIA RESPONSE LINE

The NCCPR Child Welfare Blog offers news and commentary on child welfare, and media coverage of child welfare, usually updated at least weekly. You also can follow us on Twitter and Facebook. And click here for information on the NCCPR (almost) 24/7 media response line

NCCPR: THE PRIUS OF CHILD ADVOCACY

The National Coalition for Child Protection Reform is to child advocacy as a fuel-efficient hybrid is to automobiles. Operating on a shoestring budget of about $100,000 per year, we think we’ve produced more real reform per dollar spent than any other national child advocacy organization in America.

The trade journal Youth Today says NCCPR “might be the most successful youth advocate[s] out there in terms of landing [their] words on editorial pages around the country.”

But that’s not an end in itself. The goal is reducing the number of children needlessly torn from everyone loving and familiar. So pleaseClick herefor details about how we accomplish that goal, including at our “Top Five” accomplishments for children.

From our inception, we’ve done this work funded almost exclusively by foundations. But now, to maintain our effectiveness, we need your help. PLEASE CONSIDER DONATING TO NCCPR ONLINE THROUGH NETWORK FOR GOODby clicking here. And for ways you can help reform child welfare that don’t involve donating money, please click here.

WHAT JOURNALISTS AND CHILD WELFARE LEADERS SAY ABOUT NCCPR

To read their comments, please click here.

THE NCCPR QUICK READ

•Almost everything on this site boiled down to two pages.

SOLUTIONS: FIXING CHILD WELFARE IN AMERICA

•Twelve Ways to do Child Welfare Right

• Civil Liberties Without Exception: NCCPR’s Due Process Agenda for Children and Families

NCCPR ISSUE PAPERS: THE CORE OF OUR CASE FOR REFORM

THE NCCPR EVIDENCE BASE: BRIEF ANALYSES & COMMENTARIES

•THE EVIDNECE IS IN: FOSTER CARE VS. KEEPING FAMILIES TOGETHER: THE DEFINITIVE STUDIES. NCCPR’s analysis of a studies comparing outcomes for more than 15,000 children, with links to the full studies. Children left in their own homes typically fared far better than comparably maltreated children placed in foster care.

•80 PERCENT FAILURE: ABrief Analysis of the Casey Family Programs Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study.

CHILD WELFARE WAIVERS: THE STAKES FOR YOUR STATE: NCCPR’s state-by-state guide to federal child welfare waivers explains how much federal foster care money could be used for better alternatives in each state.

• YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR. NCCPR’s briefing paper and recommendations on how the federal government pays for family preservation and foster care.

WHY MORE MANDATORY REPORTING HURTS CHILDREN. As Congress considers legislation to turn every American into a mandated reporter of child abuse, we explain why more mandatory reporting will backfire.

• CHILD ABUSE IS WAY DOWN (DON’T TELL ANYONE) Our analysis of a major new study of child abuse (NIS-4)

• WHAT DOES, AND DOES NOT, WORK TO CURB CHILD ABUSE FATALITIES: From the NCCPR Child Welfare Blog: Our analysis of an important study, including a link to the full study.

• THE CASE AGAINST CASA: How the Most Sacred Cow in Child Welfare Hurts the Children it is Meant to Help

•RESIDENTIAL TREATMENT: WHAT THE RESEARCH TELLS US (and all-purpose foster care-industrial complex excuse check-list).

•WHERE ARE AMERICA’S FOSTER CHILDREN? Our interactive database showing which states overuse the worst forms of care, and which make most use of the least harmful option

•WHEN CHILDREN WITNESS DOMESTIC VIOLENCE: EXPERT OPINION

•A CHILD WELFARE TIMELINE: Setting the Record Straight on Recent Child Welfare History

•A FOSTER PARENT SPEAKS OUT. A foster parent shares her observations about the child welfare system in her state.

•”CHILDREN’S RIGHTS” SHOULD INCLUDE THE FOURTH AMENDMENT: Our special website about Camreta v. Greene, the first major child protective services case to reach the U.S. Supreme Court in 21 years.

•AN ANALYSIS OF ASFA:From the New England Law Review, NCCPR Executive Director Richard Wexler’s analysis of the so-called Adoption and Safe Families Act.

•EPIDEMIC OF HYPE: How hysteria over methamphetamine has become the latest excuse to “take the child and run.”

•THE CHILDREN WHO DON’T MATTER TO “EVERY CHILD MATTERS” From the NCCPR Child Welfare Blog, a series of posts analyzing ECM’s grossly misleading report on child abuse. And see also our 2010 update.

•THE TROUBLE WITH CFSRs. NCCPR’s analysis of the federal government’s Child and Family Services Reviews.

STATE AND LOCAL REPORTS

NCCPR has issued reports on child welfare in many states as well as in Los Angeles, New York City and Washington D.C. They are available (in pdf format), by CLICKING HERE TO GET TO OUR STATE REPORT INDEX PAGE as well as by regular mail or e-mail as attached files.

DONATE TO NCCPR

If you like what you’ve read here, and would like to help us get the word out, please click here to make a donation via Network For Good. Thank you.

CONTACT NCCPR

National Coalition for Child Protection Reform / 53 Skyhill Road (Suite 202) / Alexandria Va., 22314 /(703) 212-2006 / nccpr@nccpr.org