Re: “Our View: Build a better child welfare system – finally” (June 30):

You make a great suggestion, but it is easier said than done. In October 2016, in a report titled “Within Our Reach A National Strategy to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities,” the federal Commission to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities informed President Barack Obama that there are three deaths each day within programs designed to protect children. Furthermore, the authors, all experts in child welfare, said that they do not have enough information about why the deaths are occurring to prevent them.

If my memory serves me correctly, this is one in a long line of reports on child abuse that admit we don’t know what we need to know about social behaviors and society’s response to them. This is an important observation and probably should be a starting point for moving forward. There are many such behaviors that we need to know more about in order to effectively deal with.

James Tierney, MSW

Brunswick