Having Kids unveiled the Fair Start Order campaign in late 2017 and began petitioning state agencies to consider Fair Start Orders and legislation in 2018. We monitor the news for child abuse coverage and strategically select particularly egregious cases to target for Fair Start Orders. So far, we have campaigned for five states to adopt Fair Start Orders, offering our professional in-depth assistance.
Our new report: Time to Get Serious About Preventing Child Abuse? lays out why we chose those states and what’s happened there since we offered our help. The report also considers the future of the Fair Start Order campaign and how we can best help protect children from child abuse.
Don’t we have a duty to ensure that children are not subjected to abuse by known offenders? Having Kids advocates for Fair Start judicial orders in cases of criminal abuse and neglect. Fair Start orders prevent abusers from having, and thereby harming, additional children as a condition of probation. These child-centered judicial orders are noncoercive, progressive, constitutional and reflect all five aspects of the Fair Start model. Child abuse presents an ideal context in which to begin the remodeling of our family planning systems. Fair Start orders do more than prevent child abuse. They allow parents to focus on rehabilitation so that they can be ready and capable of providing kids with a safe and supportive environment.
Take Action Today
You can help us prevent child abuse on a national level by contacting senate committee members and telling them that you support Having Kids’ proposal for a Fair Start amendment to the Child Abuse and Prevention Treatment Act.