The Responsibility of Being a Child Care Professional

An article in today's Indy Star really made me give thought to how serious our responsibilities are as child care providers. The article shared this week's demise of a little girl - only 3 years old, and she died at the hands of those charged most with her care: her mother and the mother's boyfriend. A great depth of sadness comes when you read the article and realize this child could have, and should have, been saved. She had been in and out of foster care since she was only 3 months old. The foster mother tried; she had told "the powers that be" that this little child should not be returned, once again, to the mother. The history of repeated abuse and neglect was documented. Yet, the child was "reunified" with her "family" only to have this last instance of abuse result in her violent death. I am sharing this because there needed to be a stronger voice for the protection of this child. Was she in the care of others? If so, then their voices should have been heard. The "system" failed this child in the most tragic of fashions.

As child care professionals we are obligated by both the law and by "what is right" to be tuned in to the children in our care. Be aware. And care enough to be "the voice" if need be. You just might be the life and death difference for a child.