Because poverty-related issues are often what pulls children from their homes, Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children, a child advocacy organization, supports the idea of more state and federal funds being used to ease those burdens.
“More often than not, children and families that come to the attention of child welfare and then come into placement are for non-abuse issues, so some of those issues are poverty, truancy, mental health, so if we start to address some of those issues in a more proactive manner, where there’s greater funding and more cross-system collaboration, government intervention won’t be as necessary,” said Rachael Miller, policy director for PA Partnerships.