April 12, 2007

Children, Families, and the Courts: Ohio Bulletin

Written by Carla Carpenter, Associate Director, The National Center for Adoption Law & Policy, this report describes the recommendations of the Supreme Court of Ohio's Subcommittee on Responding to Child Abuse, Neglect and Dependency. Since 2004, the Subcommittee has participated in ongoing efforts to develop and implement recommendations to improve Ohio's system for accepting and investigating reports of child abuse and neglect. One of the fundamental components was initiating an Alternative Response child protection model in Ohio. This targeted approach to intake and case management authorizes child protection agencies to provide differentiated responses to reports of child maltreatment based on the individual circumstances or risk factors presented. This issue of the Children, Families and the Courts Ohio Bulletin focuses on alternative response child protection models and presents an overview of alternative response, examine the national data on alternative response structures, outline the alternative response proposal, and provide an update on Ohio's progress toward implementation of an alternative response model.