The Hill: “Reform the Child Welfare System to Protect Vulnerable Children,” By Prof. Azzi-Lessing

In an opinion piece first published by The Hill, BU School of Social Work professor Lenette Azzi-Lessing explains why the United States should reform child protective services – not abolish them.

Excerpted from “Reform the Child Welfare System to Protect Vulnerable Children” (The Hill), by Lenette Azzi-Lessing:

The child welfare system — like other powerful institutions, including law enforcement and the incarceration system — is under attack.

The devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic along with a reckoning with systemic racism and inequality over the past year are shining a harsh spotlight on child protective services (CPS), the nation’s system for protecting children from abuse and neglect. Similar to the movement to defund the police, long-standing concerns about racism and other gross inequities in CPS have erupted into calls to abolish this system. […]

Read the rest of the article on The Hill‘s website here.