We’re Not Protecting Children. We’re Recycling Their Trauma

“Swaminathan: Before reporting families to the child welfare system, educators should ask how to support their needs better.

I remember the case of a 6-year-old boy whose teacher called child protective services because he had missed school one too many times. No one asked why. If they had, they would’ve heard about the eviction notice taped to the front door, the backpack still stuffed from the rushed move, the air mattress where he now slept curled beside his baby sister. His parents were working two jobs each, leaving at dawn and returning long after bedtime, doing everything they could to keep food on the table and a roof overhead.

He wasn’t unsafe. He wasn’t unloved. He was just missing too many days of school: seven, to be exact, the unexcused limit. And that was enough to trigger an investigation. Just like that, he became one of more than 3 million children investigated by child welfare services each year — over 8,000 every single day. Over 70% of confirmed cases are for “neglect,”  a vague, inconsistently defined category that often just reflects poverty.”