My first impulse was to just get him back in his house. Calling the police would have entailed waiting around for the police to show up. It's not a family with issues that I've seen. Had I not recognized the child, I would have called the police. As it was I knew where he needed to go.

The tough part about child welfare is that it's very difficult to get them to act in any case. My wife worked with them a lot when she was employed with the local school district and she was always very frustrated. They simply would not do anything even when the child was clearly in danger or there was clear evidence of abuse (bruises, bleeding, etc.).

This is a story I think of whenever conservatives go online and start criticizing social safety net programs. Those programs are already underfunded. A lot of children suffer because of the ideology of our country. It's unfortunate and we should work to change it.

It's not an easy scenario on many levels.