{"id":32272,"date":"2025-10-21T16:55:41","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T16:55:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/caseyfamilyv2.wpengine.com\/safety-define-assess-lived-experts\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T18:15:44","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T18:15:44","slug":"definir-la-seguridad-evaluar-a-expertos-con-experiencia-vivida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casey.org\/es\/safety-define-assess-lived-experts\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00bfC\u00f3mo definen y eval\u00faan la seguridad infantil los expertos con experiencia pr\u00e1ctica?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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This brief was developed in partnership with members of the Casey Family Programs Knowledge Management Lived Experience Advisory Board, which includes youth, parents, kinship caregivers, foster and adoptive parents with lived experience in the child welfare system. Transforming the child welfare system will require centering the expertise of those most impacted and engaging them in co-designing projects and strategies for systems change.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \n \n \n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

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Child safety is the fundamental responsibility of a child protection agency. In the context of child welfare, safety often is defined as a child’s freedom from abuse or neglect.<\/p>\n

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A child’s experience of feeling safe might be very different from a system’s definition. Children or older youth who have been separated from their family, neighborhood, culture, faith, or school may not feel safe, even if they have been protected from immediate harm. Families living in communities where friends and neighbors are subject to child protective services investigations, or where few resources exist, may not feel safe even if they themselves do not experience a CPS investigation or family separation.<\/p>\n

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Individuals impacted by the child welfare system are best positioned to help child welfare professionals better understand what safety means to the children and families they serve, how to assess it, and what changes may be necessary to ensure the system fulfills its promise of safety.1<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \n \n \n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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From a lived experience perspective, safety isn\u2019t about feeling as though I won\u2019t be harmed. It\u2019s about not feeling the anxieties, pressures, and fears on a day-to-day basis. Put yourself in the families\u2019 shoes. Do you think they feel safe? What anxieties might they be feeling right now?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

— Gabriel Foley, Youth, Illinois<\/cite><\/figcaption>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n
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What are some common safety assessment challenges?<\/h2>\n \n \n \n

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The child welfare safety assessment<\/a> process focuses on “immediate” or “imminent” danger of serious harm. But predicting the future, even the immediate, is difficult. Differences in caseworkers’ education, experience, caseloads, and personal biases can influence decision-making.2<\/sup><\/a> These differences impact critical decisions about family separation, as well as determinations about the safety of kinship care, foster home, and group placements.<\/p>\n

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Many jurisdictions use structured tools to help, and they vary widely among jurisdictions. As of 2021, 13 states required formal safety assessment in statute<\/a>, and 12 specified safety assessment instruments.3<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0A review in 2019<\/a> identified 11 safety assessment instruments in use. Most did not define “immediate danger.”<\/p>\n

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A 2022 quality improvement study<\/a> of safety assessments and safety plans conducted by Washington state found evidence of racial disparities in both, with American Indian\/Alaska Native families most affected by bias in the safety assessment and Black families most affected in safety plans. Preliminary recommendations from the study included developing clear standards for the administration of multiple, integrated safety assessment tools and additional training in cultural competence.<\/p>\n

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All child protection agencies reassess safety, formally or informally, at various points throughout a family’s case, including prior to unsupervised family time, before a child returns home, when significant changes (such as marriage or a birth) have occurred in a parent’s home, and prior to case closure. These assessments are not necessarily consistent in employing instruments, criteria, or decision-makers. For example, at least seven states use separate instruments to reassess families before children may return home.4<\/sup><\/a> These differences can contribute to different standards of safety being applied to a child’s family or kinship caregiver than a foster family, or a higher bar for reunification than was applied at removal – both of which could result in longer family separations.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \n \n \n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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Lived safety has to do with every area of your life, whether you\u2019re in a home, a bedroom, at school, or out in the community. It\u2019s important to look at all those kinds of safety the entire time a child is in care instead of looking only at the question of, \u2018Is my parent keeping me safe?\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

— Beth Patton, Kinship Caregiver, Kansas<\/cite><\/figcaption>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n
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How might safety assessment better reflect lived experience?<\/h2>\n \n \n \n

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Family engagement is an important aspect of gathering information and accurately assessing safety and risk. Greater awareness of how children and families define safety can help build empathy and commonality between caseworkers and the children, families, and communities they serve. The following recommendations were developed in conversation with lived experts – youth formerly in foster care, parents previously involved in the child welfare system, kinship caregivers, and foster parents.<\/p>\n

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Take multiple aspects of safety into account<\/h3>\n

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While child welfare practice defines safety in the context of child maltreatment and the risks therein, lived experts described safety – or its absence – within several domains:<\/p>\n