Did you know that in all but the most egregious of circumstances of abuse and neglect, the best place for a child is at home? Even when services are required, most child-welfare professionals prefer to work with a family while their children remain at home rather than move the children into a foster home. Why? Because we want them to be close to family, close to school – close to everything and everyone they know.

And boy do we have something special to celebrate in April during National Child Abuse Awareness and Prevention Month: The number of children removed from home is down considerably in Florida’s southeast region, which includes Broward, Palm Beach, the counties covered by CCKids – Okeechobee and the Treasure Coast.  

From July 2020 to January 2021, Child-welfare professionals in the area removed 205 FEWER children than the same period the year before. Even better, CCKids – the smallest section of the region – was responsible for 45 percent of the area’s total reduction!

While last spring’s school closures and resultant decrease in calls to Florida’s abuse hotline may have had something to do with that reduction, it’s not the whole story.

In fact, other regions throughout Florida experienced MORE removals. And compared to our behemoth neighbors to the south – Palm Beach and Broward counties – our numbers should be less than a third of the total removals – not nearly half.

Most telling of all is the low rate of removals per victim. In other words, there may be fewer children coming into care because of last year’s shutdown, but the rate by which those same children are removed from home is also down.

This says a great deal about our local system of care and the providers whose programs are keeping children safe at home while their families receive services.