Impact Feature Issue on Children with Disabilities in the Child Welfare System

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When children with disabilities and their families become involved with the child welfare system – with child protective services and/or permanency services – there is often a steep learning curve for the system as to how to best serve them. As complex as the needs are of any child removed from his or her family because of abuse or neglect, or because the family is unable to continue caring for the child, the needs of children with disabilities are even more complicated because they involve multiple systems – the disability services and child welfare services systems. These two systems don’t necessarily communicate with each other in a way that supports their work on behalf of children with disabilities who have been removed from their family home or who are at risk for such removal, and they may not have adequate access to expertise in one another’s areas of focus. In thisImpactissue, we examine the presence and needs of children with disabilities who are in the child welfare system, barriers to be addressed by the two systems and those who work in them, and strategies for moving forward in better meeting the needs of such children and their families.