Ask any administrator whether their organization keeps records on staff and volunteers, and the answer is almost always yes. Ask that same administrator how quickly the organization can produce every record connected to one specific person, from every system. Their confidence usually drops. The problem…
Kids who come to us from hard places have real reasons for their outbursts. A canceled visit can wreck a morning. A new house rule can trigger a slammed door. We should understand where the behavior comes from. That understanding does not mean we should…
Your organization’s legal exposure does not end with an injury or claim. What your program directors, operations staff, and child safety coordinator say after an incident, in emails, in conversations with parents, in staff meetings, and on social media, can come back as evidence against…
Some Plan B kids started school this week. Some still have a few weeks of summer left. Either way, the shift from summer to school routine may be a challenge for a child who came into your family through loss. The loss may have been…
I stretched uncomfortably, cramped from an uneasy night in the chair next to my foster daughter’s hospital bed. What had started as a stomachache had turned into immediate gallbladder surgery and an overnight stay. Everything seemed to go well, but we were still waiting to…
A Texas school district just finished defending a retaliation claim. It took four years, a CPS investigation, and a trip to the Fifth Circuit for the school system to win. Dr. Johnathan Castille, a special education administrator, reported two teachers in 2021 for allegedly abusing students. He…
A background check that satisfies your state’s minimum legal requirement can still miss the exact record that matters most. Organizations run the background check, treat a clean result as proof of due diligence, and move on. Neither the check nor the confidence it produces always…
I went for a jog today. It was a fresh, misty, slightly-chilly day. My favorite! It always feels great to walk outside for fresh air and open space where the only sound I hear is the beautiful tone of music I have singing in my ears. Not today….
I once told one of my foster daughters something my grandmother had told me years earlier. She got quiet for a minute. Then she admitted that it had been so long since she’d seen her own grandmother that she’d forgotten what her face looked like….
One of the biggest problems in youth organizations is staff burnout. In one survey of Colorado child welfare workers, half reported high levels of compassion fatigue. That’s not an unusual number for youth organizations. It’s a problem that we need to notice and address, because compassion…
Most administrators think of a code of conduct as a child protection tool. Attorneys and courts think of it as evidence. If your organization receives any federal funding, a written harassment or conduct policy will likely become a central exhibit in any serious Title IX…
None of us planned the path that led us into foster care, adoption, or a blended family. Many people call it a wrong turn. I call it Plan B parenting. There is an old aviation nickname that captures this better than any parenting book I…