260— Necessary Reform in the Child Welfare System

This paper will examine and explore solutions to fix the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS). In Los Angeles County, California, there has been numerous situations where the children are not being checked on regularly and that results in them living in unsafe environments. These children are not removed from an unsafe home immediately. Some of the DCFS social workers do not complete neglect checks in a timely manner or even visit the home once. According the Los Angeles Daily News, an audit of practices in 2017 and 2018 revealed that 72% of social workers completed the necessary safety checks on time. Some never visited the home of the child. This lack of checking resulted in children staying in an unsafe living environment for much longer than they should have, after the household was reported to DCFS. This is real issue that needs to be addressed. Children should not suffer because of problems in the department that has the only goal of protecting children. To fix this problem, new policies would have to be implemented that would allow social workers to more thoroughly check each home as well as ensure that safety checks are completed on time.