The cost of closed doors: Media access to dependency courts linked to indicators of accountability and public awareness

Abstract

Given the broad consensus about protecting children from abuse and neglect and safeguarding parental rights, the scarcity of funding for the US child welfare system indicates a lack of public awareness into child dependency as a pervasive social problem. The contribution of closed dependency courts to this public disengagement is measurable in state-level differences in child welfare outcomes. By comparing states with open versus closed dependency courts, this study tests whether media and public access to hearings is associated with greater public awareness, measured in more state and local funding for child protective services, and greater accountability, measured in lower rates of child fatalities.