Keeping Families Together: Understanding the Harm of Removal and Balancing of Safety

This presentation is designed to help prepare the dependency court community for the upcoming statutory changes passed in HB 1227 that go into effect July 1, 2023, by increasing attendees’ understanding of the short-term and long-term harms that children experience when they are removed from the home and the balance of those harms against child safety in removal decisions.

Presenters will discuss the information that judicial officers will need to make removal decisions and also take a deep dive into the process of child removal and the mechanisms that can be put in place the ameliorate harm when removal is necessary to ensure child safety.