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Child Protection and Educational Neglect: A Preliminary Study. Curriculum Module Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare Funded in part by the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station and Title IV-E Tim Zuel, Hennepin County Child Protection Services &
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Child Protection and Educational Neglect: A Preliminary Study Curriculum Module Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare Funded in part by the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station and Title IV-E Tim Zuel, Hennepin County Child Protection Services & Anita Larson, Minn-LINK Coordinator, Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.
Relevant History: Truancy Laws • Historically, school attendance problems in children have been dealt with in the juvenile court system. • Mandatory school laws began in the mid 1800’s • 1970’s • Juvenile Justice and Protection Act (1974) • States can no longer place truants in institutions, rather, they should be dealt with using community interventions. • Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) (1975) • Mandated reporting laws for child abuse. • 1980’s • Child in Need of Protection (CHIPS) statue (1988) • Offences such as truancy covered under child protection codes, not juvenile delinquency codes • 1990’s • Maltreatment of Minors Act (1993) • Children <11 coded as Educational Neglect (Child Protection) • Children >11 coded as Truants (Juvenile Delinquency)
Background: Truancy • Studies show a relationship between truancy and school drop outs with delinquency rates • (Shultz, 1987; Paterson, 1989; Berg, 1992; Corville-Smith, 1995; Epstein & Sheldon, 2002) • Chronic truants are more likely to drop out of school than non-truants. • Dropping out of high school is associated with lower earnings, increased risk of unemployment, greater risk of welfare use, greater risk of serving prison time • (Garry, 1996; White, Fyfe, Campbell & Goldkamp, 2001) • Chronic truancy is linked with serious delinquent behavior for children younger than 12; but early intervention has been found to be effective in preventing this • (Baker et al., 2001, p. 2; Farrington, 2003) • Truancy is linked with bleak economic outcomes • (U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics, 2001)
Current Study: Purpose • The purpose of this study is to explore results of the intervention of the child protection system on those children and families who have a maltreatment finding of educational neglect.
Methods • January 2000: Minnesota begins to collect child welfare data (including educational neglect data) in their Social Services Information System (SSIS) system • Child protection maltreatment findings of educational neglect data collected from one complete academic year, 2000-2001 • Currently, “Educational Neglect” is defined as: • Seven or more days of unexcused absences • Mandated reporting necessary
Findings: Attendance Rates • Educational Neglect (more than seven unexcused absences) led to a maltreatment identification and subsequent child protection involvement. • This study found that the children who had been identified for educational neglect had increased attendance rates. • The overall sample (n=623) had a 70% improvement in attendance rates from the first year to the second.
Findings: Attendance and Age, Gender, Race • The study found that age had an effect on attendance rate improvement. • 80% of six year olds had attendance improvement • 60% of eleven year olds had attendance improvement • Neither gender nor race had an effect on attendance improvement.
Findings: Maltreatment Rates • There was an age difference in maltreatment findings • Six and seven year olds had slightly higher rates • There was not a gender difference in maltreatment findings • There was disproportionate racial group findings • African American and American Indian children were over represented and Caucasian children were under represented in maltreatment findings.
Study Limitations • The current study is an exploratory examination; as such, it lacks a comparable group that is needed for an experimental design. • Lack of understanding of developmental sequences • It is unknown whether truancy is a causative factor for delinquency, or if they are tied together by an unknown third factor. • It is also unknown whether educational neglect declined specifically because of the child protection intervention; this might have also been caused by an unknown third factor.
Study Limitations Cont… • There were inconsistent recording practices for educational neglect reports among counties. • Half of the Minnesota counties included in this study reported no educational neglect; this might not be representative of a lack of neglect, but rather a lack of understanding or consistent recording practices. • Educational neglect is infrequently discerned from the broader neglect category.
Implications for Practice and Policy • The results suggest that the current policy of child protection intervention in educational neglect cases may positively influence the attendance of children who experience absenteeism. • These results imply that some form of intervention, such as (but not necessarily) Child Protection Services, may help reduce chronic absenteeism in children. • This study also questions whether the Department of Education should collect this type of information more consistently, so it can be studied further. • The study shows large disparities in race for maltreatment determinations for educational neglect, which has both practice and policy implications.
Implications for Practice and Policy Cont… • Child protection workers could work much closer with schools in developing early identification and intervention strategies, to help curb absenteeism before it leads to truancy. • These workers could begin to use the informal resources children and communities share to build strength and resilience in young truants-to-be. • Training and education is also needed for both child protection and school professionals in documentation and reporting of educational neglect.
Implications for Further Research • Further research is needed about the causation and intervention of high absenteeism among children • Future studies should include a control group, filled with students who experience high rates of absenteeism, but who do not receive the intervention (e.g. child protection services). • Further research is needed to determine if child protection intervention is as effective for children with chronic absenteeism (more than 20 missed days of school) as it is for those who miss less (but at least seven). • Further research should control for several other factors, such as socio-economics, school, community, personal, developmental, family, ethnic, and cultural status.
Conclusion • This study examined the school attendance of Minnesota children determined to be educationally neglected for the year in which that finding was determined and again in the year following determination. The results suggest that the current policy of child protection intervention in educational neglect may positively influence the attendance of children who experience absenteeism (approximately 70% of the sample had improved attendance). What is unknown is what specific proportion of the improvement in attendance can be attributed to the intervention provided by contact with county social services and what portion is due to error or factors affecting attendance improvement.
Conclusion, cont… • To identify the specific effect of the child protection maltreatment a more rigorous experimental model would be needed. This descriptive study succeeded in illustrating the condition of the aggregated attendance rates for children identified with educational neglect and the resulting improved attendance rate some part of which is likely to be attributable to the child protection intervention.
