Foster Care & Extended Foster Care
Commission on Child Abuse to Hold Open Meeting
The Commission to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities (CECANF), a federal advisory committee established by the Protect Our Kids Act of 2012 (P. L. 112-275), will hold a public meeting in Portland, Oregon on Thursday, February 26, 2015, from 8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and Friday, February 27, from 8:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Pacific Standard Time. YLC Executive Director Jennifer Rodriguez is a member of the 12 person Commission, which is charged with: (1) studying the use of child protective services and child welfare services to reduce fatalities from child abuse and neglect; (2) developing recommendations to reduce such fatalities for federal, state, and local agencies, and private sector and nonprofit organizations, including recommendations for a comprehensive national strategy to reduce child fatalities; and (3) developing guidelines for the type of information that should be tracked to improve interventions to prevent such fatalities.
Location: Marriott City Center, 520 SW Broadway, Portland, Oregon 97205.
Attendance: Individuals interested in attending the meeting in person or via webinar and teleconference must register in advance (see link below). The meeting site is accessible to individuals with disabilities. Members of the public will not have the opportunity to ask questions or otherwise participate in the meeting, either on the phone or in person.
Registration: To attend in person or via webinar/teleconference and receive a copy of the agenda and presentation slides by email, please register by Tuesday, February 24.
Meeting agenda: CECANF was established to develop a national strategy and recommendations for reducing fatalities resulting from child abuse and neglect. The purpose of the February 26-27 meeting is for Commission members to gather national and state-specific information regarding child abuse and neglect fatalities.
On February 26, Commission members will hear testimony from four panels of presenters on the following topics:
- Child abuse and neglect service delivery models under way in the Pacific Northwest region that are promising in the prevention of fatalities to children not known to the child welfare system
- Child welfare agency workforce issues that influence performance, and successful strategies for addressing these issues
- Status and effectiveness of key federal policies aimed at protecting children at risk of harm, and successful strategies that are being used by states, tribes, and localities that demonstrate reduced child abuse and neglect fatalities of children known to the child welfare system
- The legal framework that supports or limits government’s ability to intervene on behalf of children in the family context
Commission members also will continue discussing the work plans of the six Commission subcommittees and the information that they have obtained to date. On February 27, Commission members will continue their discussion of the work of the subcommittees.
For further information visit the CECANF website. Please follow us on Twitter @cecanf