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What Every Therapist Needs to Know About Court Cases filed by NJ DCP&P

Posted on August 21, 2019

 

Therapist that are treating a child or parent who is involved with the state Division of Child Protection and Permanency (CP&P, or Division, formerly the Division of Youth and Family Services, or DYFS ) may be asked to provide reports concerning them. This guide provides information about the court process, the various people encountered, and the therapist's role in the process.

To complete this guide, ACNJ sought input from different individual entities involved in CP&P cases called “stakeholders”. The hope is that as partners in the process, therapists providing services to children and families will come to understand the cultural background of the family, as well as the enormous stress and challenges many of these families face due to poverty, racial discrimination and stereotyping, homelessness, lack of education, health problems, living in high crime areas, and/or undocumented status. Alliances formed with families based on a basic understanding of life circumstances will increase the likelihood of achieving progress.

This guide was made possible with the generous support of The Schumann Fund for New Jersey.

If you have questions about this guide, please contact Mary Coogan at ACNJ via email to mcoogan@acnj.org or call (973) 643-3876.

View resource guide

Download pdf

Peter Chen comments on the Newark lead crisis

Posted on August 14, 2019

The Newark lead crisis is back in the news, as recent EPA testings show that the city-distributed water filters may not be working as they should. In response, Mayor Ras Baraka and Governor Murphy are working to get the word out about the issue, as well as provide bottled water to affected residents and determine why the filters are not removing as much lead as previously thought.

Policy counsel Peter Chen gives his thoughts on the lead issue in a recent NJTV broadcast:

Back in 2018, ACNJ reported on the lead levels in children in its Newark Kids Count report, highlighting the successes the city achieved while also cautioning that there is still work to be done for every child to have zero lead in their systems. While the percentage of Newark children with high lead levels in their system has been on the decline since 2006, levels are still higher than the rest of the state, and small levels of lead remain a pervasive issue.

Click here to see if you are in an area affected by the lead levels.
If you are in an affected area, find where you can obtain bottled water here.

Successes, challenges of juvenile justice system through stakeholders’ eyes

Posted on August 8, 2019

Kate Evans Report - The Juvenile Justice System in New Jersey: Successes, Challenges, and Ways Ahead

Summer intern Kate Evans surveyed 100 individuals involved in New Jersey’s juvenile justice system, including members of youth services commissions, staff members of juvenile justice-related agencies, parents and youth. Her findings show where New Jersey is succeeding in juvenile justice, the positive impact of the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI) and where we can improve and move forward for our youth.

Read the full report here.

Blog: Collaborating to Ensure Successful Preschool Expansion

Posted on August 1, 2019

Cynthia Rice
Senior Policy Analyst

Since early this year, ACNJ and its partner, the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) have been criss-crossing the state working to prepare school districts, Head Start

and child care providers to expand preschool in more New Jersey communities. Although expanding high quality preschool has been part of our state's school funding formula since 2008, additional state funds were not made available until the 2018 budget. Every year since then, more dollars have been earmarked for these expansion efforts, moving slowly towards increased access to more 3- and 4-year-olds living in eligible school districts. But, money isn't everything! A great deal of community planning and work needs to be accomplished before school districts can take advantage of these preschool dollars. In the last two years, ACNJ and NIEER saw that districts were less inclined to apply for the funding because of the short time-frame between when the money became available in the budget and when the preschool classrooms needed to be up and running. We wanted to make sure that as many young children as possible benefited from these additional dollars.

That's where ACNJ and NIEER came in.

By scheduling school district, child care provider and Head Start meetings in nearly every county in the state, ACNJ and NIEER were able to provide supports to educate and prepare these groups , particularly those located in communities most likely to expand. We explained the benefits of both applying for the preschool funds and implementing preschool through partnerships between school districts, child care and Head Start.

Like the two years before, additional dollars--$20 million-- were made available for expansion in the 2020 state budget for expansion. The difference this time, was that more districts had begun planning to apply for the funds, thanks to ACNJ and NIEER's efforts. District plans were due to the Department of Education on August 1st and districts will learn on September 3rd  as to whether they will receive funding. New classrooms are required to be up and running no later than October 1st. ACNJ and NIEER anticipate that the early planning will lead to increased district demand for New Jersey's nationally recognized preschool model! Fingers crossed!

Read more: More kids in NJ will have access to Pre-K Oct 1st!