The Plight of Rural Child Welfare: Meeting Standards Without Services

Abstract

ABSTRACT While poverty and substance abuse are two critical predictors of entry in the child welfare system, rural families have at least as frequent mental health and substance abuse treatment needs as their urban counterparts, greater poverty, and less access to services. A content analysis of final reports for Round One of the Child and Family Services Reviews (CFSRs) found rural comments related to 26 of the 45 items reviewed, and particularly related to adequate services (“service array”) available to rural children. Rural comments also noted creative methodologies for overcoming resource shortages and achieving positive outcomes. The article highlights the Administration for Children and Family (ACF) findings that adequate services were related to capacities to provide for children's needs, and to permanency and stability in living situations. While the CFSRs were not designed to determine rural versus urban differences, these findings raise questions about states' differential provision of protection to rural versus urban children. The study highlights the need for national data systems to define and collect data related to the welfare of rural children, for increased research related to rural child welfare, and for an examination of justice issues related to rural families, caregivers and child welfare workers who are held to the same standard of care without the same support as their urban counterparts.