Decades Later, DC’s Neglect Law Gets Critical Update
No parent is perfect. But when a child is at risk of serious harm, the law requires the government to intervene.
The law also determines how the government should get involved. When should it offer resources and support? When should it take the dramatic, traumatizing step of removing a child and placing them in foster care?
Government social workers make that first, tough choice. Family Court judges make the final decision.
But the law that guides these decisions was written decades ago, before research emerged showing the harm of removing a child from their parents. It also had failed to stay aligned with important caselaw.
Until now.
This summer, DC’s updated neglect statute went into effect.
It took five years of hard work, collaboration, advocacy and compromise to make this happen. Children’s Law Center led a working group, alongside the DC Office of the Attorney General, to draft changes to the law that would do a better job of protecting children.
The revised law makes a critical shift: it focuses on a child’s safety and well-being by looking at the conditions of the child, not the parent.
Just as important, the law now recognizes that when resources such as stable housing or food assistance would allow a child to remain safely at home, the government must provide those resources.
These changes to the law promote more timely and targeted intervention while reducing unnecessary government involvement that can itself be traumatic.
In short, the updated law focuses government agencies on what matters most: keeping children safe, supporting families before crises deepen and reserving foster care for the moments when it is truly needed.
Our Guardian ad Litem Program
Children’s Law Center attorneys represent approximately half of District children involved with DC’s Child and Families Services Agency – several hundred children in foster care and protective supervision each year. We make sure their perspectives and wishes are heard and their best interests are prioritized.