d interview the child. Child services in cooperation with the police would act as the investigation department to determine if abuse has in fact occurred. The school social workers job would then be to do an initial assessment to determine if any special treatment is necessary for the child. If child abuse or neglect is found to have happened the child would go to another professional for an in depth assessment. At this assessment any necessary treatment programs to counter act the effects of abuse or neglect would be implemented. While all of this is going on a investigator from child protective services would visit the home and determine if it was safe for the child to remain there. A representative of the D.A.'s office would consult with child protective services to determine what treatment program the offender should enter and then require them to do so at the risk of additional jail time. At this time if would be the prosecutor's job to determine if criminal charges should be pressed, or if enrollment in a treatment program is good enough. No matter what happens the offender would be placed on a list of people who would be subject to random home visits by child protective services to ensure that the child is safe. The length of time that these random visits can go on for would be determined by a joint decision by the prosecutor's office and child protective services.The current system is similar to this except that I do not see a lot of communication between different agencies. This sharing of responsibilities is a key part of my plan. Everyone has to be on the same page and have the same rules or we will never eliminate child abuse and neglect. This however, does not mean that only school social workers can report abuse and neglect to child protective services. Anyone can alert the appropriate representative of any of these agencies. It does mean, however, that once the report is in the process of dealing with the si...
