When serious allegations surface and you want an independent investigator with experience, it’s common to turn to attorneys and former law enforcement. As a former prosecutor and currently an attorney in private practice, I obviously think that instinct is a good one. But you need…
January is National Mentoring Month, and January 17 is International Mentoring Day. There’s no doubt that mentoring is an incredibly important resource for children who have suffered trauma, but it can be hard to distinguish good mentoring from predatory grooming. Those of us who parent…
A recent report out of Sacramento demonstrates how the absence of written documentation, particularly with mandated reports, can destroy careers, leave children vulnerable, and create institutional failures—even when everyone involved believes they followed proper procedures. The Investigation’s Conclusions Various staff and youth at a Sacramento…
“Poverty is not neglect.” It’s a theme that’s been repeated often in recent years, and a statement that’s undoubtedly true. But, as I argued almost two years ago in my Substack column, repeating it as a mantra can lead to bad outcomes in which children…
Creating child protection policies is a significant milestone for youth serving organizations (YSO). But writing effective policies is just the beginning. The real challenge—and the real opportunity—lies in ensuring your child protection policy remains a living, breathing part of your organizational culture rather…
In recent years, development NGOs have reenergized their efforts to safeguard children and vulnerable adults they work with from abuse and sexual exploitation. Many NGOs have adopted zero-tolerance policies for harassment, abuse, and exploitation. But safeguarding scandals continue, and even strenuous…
When thieves pulled off a brazen daylight robbery at the Louvre this October, this article says security experts weren't particularly surprised. The investigation revealed what security professionals already knew: even the most prestigious institutions struggle with fundamental questions about where to place cameras, how to…
Despite the lessons about child protection policies provided by multiple highly-publicized sex abuse and safeguarding scandals, why do so many organizations that serve children, youth, and vulnerable adults still fall prey to the fast-talking, dynamic predator? Even after task forces and special commissions push for…
Colorado's new mandated reporter law highlights a critical question for youth-serving organizations: Do we require staff members to report their concerns internally or require them to go directly to child protection authorities? Until this year, Colorado allowed staff to take concerns to supervisors who in their…
One of the most common mistakes I see my youth-serving clients make is having written child protection policies that they don’t adequately explain to on-the-ground staff. The case I highlighted last week may be an example of that problem. Having written policies that your staff…
North Dakota has changed its requirements for mandated reporting for teachers. As of last Friday, teachers now must have training only before initial licensing rather than every year. The standard training in that state appears to be relatively short and not particularly onerous. But short trainings, while better than nothing, rarely can…
One of the difficulties in fashioning child protection policies is that there is little evidence about what actually works. We can reason backward from incidents, arguing that closing a loophole that a particular abuser exploited will prevent abuse in the future. That backward-looking reasoning, however, is simplistic and…