Safety Decision Making - Law & Best Practices

“Safety planning in the child welfare system is a shared responsibility, but ultimately the court must make critical safety decisions such as whether to remove a child and when to return a child home. Judges rules on these choices every day, but often lack a decision-making structure, which can lead to following agency recommendations without a thorough inquiry. This can lead to an over-removal problem, rubber-stamping agency recommendations without knowing what’s driving the safety decision; or an under-removal problem, leaving children in unsafe conditions, or returning them home prematurely.”

Special instructions: Please refer to Training Memorandum (TM 17-044) for very important specifics related to the dates, begin and end time, parking, registration and travel.