Washington Policy Watch

A new report released yesterday by Fight Crime, Invest In Kids Washington shows a sharp increase in cases of child abuse and neglect over the past year – a year in which financial turmoil has caused mounting family stress. The report, released at a press conference in Olympia’s capitol building, featured speakers from the law enforcement, medical, and legislative perspectives.

As I sat in the room crowded with media, I cried as I heard Klickitat County Sheriff Rick McComas catalog just a few of the abuse cases he had investigated this year: an infant in the roadway, a malnourished child fed only potato chips, a toddler admitted to the ER covered in over 35 bruises, a baby left in the road… The list went on, as did my tears.

The data detailed in the report shows that child abuse cases have doubled or tripled in large and small communities across the state. And 2009 looks to quickly outpace the drastic increases seen in 2008.

But we have the tools we need to reverse this growing trend.

In hard economic times like this, keeping families out of poverty is one of the best ways to to ensure children in Washington avoid abuse and neglect. And assisting parents by giving them the skills they need to not just to survive, but to prosper, is one of our most effective way to fight incidences of abuse.

We have established effective programs to safeguard our children that have worked for many years, but now a more serious and concentrated approach is needed. These programs have the tools to protect our kids–but not without public support and funding.

If legislative leaders are serious about promises to safeguard Washington’s most vulnerable during this state budget crisis, it sounds like home visiting should be one of the first places they start.

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Fight Crime, Invest in Kids Washington is a “bipartisan, nonprofit anti-crime organization led by Washington State’s best-known police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecuting attorneys, other law enforcement leaders and crime survivors” that advocates on behalf of children and early learning as the best tool of crime prevention. They urged lawmakers to continue funding for Home visiting programs in Washington State, funding which was completely cut in the Governor’s proposed budget for the next biennium ($3.5 million).

Home Visiting is an evidence-based intensive family intervention that results in a number of positive effects for children, among which is a significant decrease in child abuse.

Filed under: early learning, education, state economy, tax and budget, work and family, childcare, children, community, economy, health care, inequality, public policy, washington state