Arianna Hunziker 1.3 million dollar settlement.
Million dollars settlements are not common in cases of foster and adoption child injury or death. Blaming child protection workers solves nothing. It’s counter productive. People that do this work are asked to do more than they ever can do. It’s very hard work with too much sadness and failure.
Managing up to 150 youth for each staff worker guarantees that time spent per child is parsed out sparingly. Important things will be missed.
Only a fraction of the pain suffered by abused children ever makes the paper. Only a tiny fraction of their injuries are ever spoken of or known by anyone outside the family. Almost no one is ever compensated for any terrible thing that has happened.
What could child protection agencies do with a few million more dollars? Would they lower caseloads and require more time be spent per child to better gauge the safety and well-being of the child?
Could a few more volunteer CASA guardian ad Litems help in those cases that appear to need more oversight?
These have been reasonably good budget years for agencies across the board. I shudder to think of the reductions in child protection that will inevitably happen when the next recession happens. Will workers be required to keep 300 children safe instead of 150)?
The work Safe Passage For Children is doing today to analyze child death in MN will likely show us the need for greater attention to children in Child Protective Services. Less is not more for at risk children.
Thank you Safe Passage For Children of Minnesota.
KARA reports on the issues of child abuse.
This article submitted by CASA volunteer Mike Tikkanen
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