Ohio expanding its "Alternative Response" Child Abuse/Neglect Program

A pilot program giving caseworkers the freedom to use an alternative approach to reports of child abuse and neglect in Ohio is being expanded from its original 10 to 15 additional counties in the state because of it's having been demonstrated to result in better outcomes for children and families, the Ohio Supreme Court announced last Monday.

Back in the summer of 2004, the Ohio Supreme Court’s Advisory Committee on Children, Families and the Courts directed its Subcommittee on Responding to Child Abuse, Neglect and Dependency to:

• determine if Ohio’s statutory guidelines for the investigation and prosecution of child abuse and neglect properly serve children and families in need of government intervention;


• make statutory and administrative recommendations to improve Ohio’s system for accepting and investigating reports of child abuse and neglect; and
  
• make recommendations to standardize and make uniform Ohio statutes regarding abuse, neglect, and dependency cases.

During the pilot project, caseworkers in 10 counties used “Alternative Response” to respond to anywhere from 25 to 50 percent of all reports of abuse and neglect. Instead of conducting a traditional family assessment, they responded with an "alternative family assessment response," in which they assessed the needs of the child or family – in a non-threatening, non-adversarial manner – and then offered services to meet those needs.

Caren Kaplan, director of child protection reform for American Humane’s Child Welfare Programs and lead project consultant, told the Court that "the results – across the board – of the Ohio Alternative Response Pilot were sufficiently favorable to recommend that Ohio should develop a comprehensive plan and proceed with statewide implementation of alternative response in all 88 counties."

The Supreme Court's Subcommittee on Child Abuse and Neglect approved the recommendation last Wednesday, hopefully allowing the 25 counties now involved to begin offering those programs by Fall.


More in-depth information in the form of the final AIM report, final evaluation, chronicle of the pilot study and a report with statutory and rule recommendations are available on the American Humane Institute’s website online. While no longer being updated, the Supreme Court’s “Final Report of the Subcommittee on Responding to Child Abuse, Neglect & Dependency” is still available on the Court’s website.