The federal Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) just released 2020 child maltreatment reports, more than a year after the reporting periods. They showed wide variations among states and counties.
The delays are due largely to an unwieldy federally-mandated IT system known generically as SACWIS (don’t ask) and as SSIS in Minnesota. States estimate that social workers spend 70% of their time feeding data into this system.
Conversely, the variations are because DHHS doesn’t have the authority to mandate program standards among states. As a result, for example, findings of maltreatment ranged from 1.9 to 19 per 1,000 children nationally, and from 2.2 to 17 per thousand among Minnesota counties.
The saying goes “If you can’t measure it you can’t manage it.” We have work to do before we can manage child welfare.
Listen to this blog, as read by the author, followed by in-depth commentary and analysis, in this week’s podcast. Listen here or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Just search “Safe Passage for Children” in your podcast app.
Read the full transcript of the podcast here.