Poverty Versus Neglect In North Carolina

Examining the interplay between poverty, neglect definitions, and disproportionate impacts.

Summary

This Light Paper will delve into a question that child welfare professionals across the country have begun to examine critically: how do we differentiate and disentangle poverty from child neglect in the field of child welfare? Instead of removing children from their legal guardians because of poverty, agencies and organizations can explore opportunities to connect families to resources that address the root of the problem, i.e., affordable housing opportunities and food assistance programs.

The definition of child neglect in North Carolina comes from the “North Carolina School Health Program Manual” and states the following:

This definition does not distinguish between a case due to willful neglect and a case due to financial inability being the basis for failure to care for the child/children. The inability to differentiate between the two has many adverse implications. For starters, Child Protective Services (CPS) and child welfare professionals must ensure the safety and well-being of children. However, the removal of a child or children based on poverty alone can have more traumatic effects than favorable for the family. Additionally, BIPOC people experience higher rates of poverty due to many factors, including the ongoing impacts of systemic racism in housing, education, and employment. People of color are also overly represented in child maltreatment and neglect cases. This paper will explore what scholars have concluded: The connection between the disproportion of those living in poverty and the overrepresentation of groups of people in child welfare cannot be denied and must be addressed if we want to serve families. 

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This Light Paper offers vital actionable items

• Recommendation for comprehensive training for mandated reporters so, when appropriate, we can prioritize referrals to resources over referrals to CPS.
• An improved North Carolina definition of neglect which specifies financial ability alone is not grounds for a neglect case.
• State-specific poverty measures.
• Data management in child welfare in NC.

See resources below that inform our Light Paper issue on this important topic.

Poverty in the US

• What’s Poverty? Meaning, Causes, and How to Measure
• Talking about Poverty: Narratives, Counter-Narratives, and Telling Effective Stories
• Disentangling Neglect Summit
• Separating Poverty From Neglect in Prevention  
• It’s Time to Stop Confusing Poverty with Neglect 
• Distinguishing Poverty Experienced by Families from Child Neglect
• How is Poverty Measured?
• Child Poverty in America More Than Doubled in 2022
• What Would 2022 Child Poverty Rates Have Looked Like if an Expanded Child Tax Credit Had Still Been in Place?
• Poverty in the United States: 2022 

Reviewing the Effects of Child Welfare Removals

• How does investigation, removal, and placement cause trauma for children?
• The Harm of Child Removal
• How can we ensure that separating children from their families is an intervention of last resort? 

Poverty in North Carolina

• More than 1-in-6 children in North Carolina are in poverty, federal data shows 
• Poverty in North Carolina: Breakdown by County

Child Neglect in North Carolina

• Abuse, Neglect, and Dependency in North Carolina 
• Recognizing & Reporting Child Maltreatment  

Poverty and Child Welfare

• Can reductions in child poverty impact involvement with child protective services? 
• Evictions and Neighborhood Child Maltreatment Reports 
• Poverty and Child Neglect: How Did We Get it Wrong? 
• Research Reinforces: Providing Cash to Families in Poverty Reduces Risk of Family Involvement in Child Welfare 

Racial Disparities in Child Welfare

• Child maltreatment risk as a function of poverty and race/ethnicity in the USA 
• One in Ten Black Children in American Are Separated From Their Parents by the Child-Welfare System. A New Book Argues That’s No Accident 
• Data Show Disparities in Referrals to Child Protective Services Largely a Result of Risk Not Racism 
• How an algorithm that screens for child neglect could harden racial disparities  

Mandated Reporters

• State Training Resources for Mandatory Reporters of Child Abuse and Neglect 
• Spring Issue of the PIF Quarterly Emphasizes How Mandatory Reporting is Ruining the Child Welfare System 
• Addressing disparities in child welfare Mandated reporting 

Databases on Child Welfare Activities

• Use of Data in Child and Family Services Reviews  
• State-level Data for Understanding Child Welfare in the United States
• Wisconsin Department of Children and Families Child Protective (CPS) Reports Dashboard 

Definitions

• In Defining Maltreatment, Nearly Half of States Do Not Specifically Exempt Families’ Financial Inability to Provide  
• Recommendations for Creating Better Concept Definitions in the Organizational, Behavioral, and Social Sciences

Index of Deep Disadvantage

• Understanding Communities of Deep Disadvantage: An Introduction  
• New Index Ranks America’s 100 most disadvantaged communities

Books for Further Reading

• Places in Need: The Changing Geography of Poverty by Scott W. Allard 
• Broke in America: Seeing, Understanding, and Ending U.S. Poverty by Joanne Samuel Goldblum and Colleen Shaddox  
• Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival, and Hope in an American City by Andrea Elliott