The Campaign

We are a coalition of impacted families, social workers, attorneys, and other advocates working to end the devastating effects of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) of 1974 on children, families, and communities. 

For nearly 50 years, the United States government has shaped and perpetuated a nationwide family policing system which it enshrined with the enactment of CAPTA in 1974. The family policing system encouraged by CAPTA pathologizes, criminalizes, isolates, and punishes families through embedded systemic features that are rooted in white supremacy and indifference to the emotional and material needs of impoverished families. We reject CAPTA’s foundational logic of punishment and control, and demand full divestment from all approaches to child well-being that rely on surveilling, policing, and separating families.

We seek to educate the public about the harms of CAPTA, and to normalize a caring approach to the needs and aspirations of children and families grounded in respect for family integrity and autonomy. This approach must: increase access to direct support and material benefits, eliminate the power and harm of the family policing system, support family integrity and autonomy, and promote healing and reparations for impacted children, families and communities. On the path toward ending the power and harm perpetuated by CAPTA’s framework, we support interim reforms that divest power over families and resources from family policing and increase power and resources for families and communities.

Our Priorities

  • Center the experience of impacted people.

    People who have been directly harmed by family policing are the experts on what needs to change.

  • Create supports outside of the family policing system.

    To achieve true safety, families need to be able to safely ask for help. This can only happen if support systems exist outside of the family policing system.

  • End mandated reporting.

    The vast majority of investigations initiated through the “mandated reporting” system required under CAPTA are not only unnecessary but actually threaten the safety and wellness of children and their families.

  • End child abuse registries.

    Child abuse registries do not advance public safety. Instead, they inflict harm by creating long-term barriers to housing and employment.

  • End the conflation of poverty and neglect.

    The family policing system routinely punishes families for symptoms of poverty and systemic racism.

  • Limit state authority to separate families.

    Forced family separation causes lifelong trauma and generational harm for children, families, and communities.

  • End punishment of pregnant and parenting people.

    Surveillance and criminalization of pregnant and parenting people leads to worse health outcomes for newborns and parents.

The Coalition

  • JMACforFamilies

  • Pregnancy Justice

  • UpEND Movement

  • The MJCF Coalition

  • Holistic Birth Collective

  • Mining for Gold

  • Center for Family Representation

  • National Coalition for Child Protection Reform

  • National Center for Lesbian Rights