Created by: Betty Williamson
Location: Las Vegas, NV, United States
Goal: Clark County Adoption of the Jeriko Act 

 

PETITION SUMMARY

Support the Clark County Jeriko Act : A Local Reform Model for National Child Welfare Accountability
The system that is supposed to protect our children is failing. Children are dying. Parents are being silenced. Agencies operate in secrecy. Courts are making life-altering decisions without complete information. Families are being harmed because child welfare, law enforcement, family court, schools, mental health providers, and domestic violence systems do not communicate with one another in a consistent, accountable, or transparent way.

 

The Clark County Jeriko Act is a local reform initiative designed to address these failures where they are happening now, in Clark County, Nevada, while also serving as the foundation for a larger national reform movement.

 

This Act is not just about one family. It is about creating a local model of accountability, transparency, communication, and oversight that can be used to support broader federal reform through the national Jeriko Act. Stand with us. Stand with our children. Sign to demand that Clark County lead the way in child welfare, family court, and interagency accountability reform.

 
Why I Started This Petition

 

I never expected that the greatest danger to my son would not come from strangers, but from systems that were supposed to protect him.

 

A system that failed him.

 

A system that failed me.

 

A system that is failing families across Clark County and across the country.

 

That is why the Clark County Jeriko Act was born.

 

This local Act is the first step toward building a stronger national reform effort. Clark County has the opportunity to become the starting point for a model that can later be expanded across Nevada and eventually used to support federal child welfare and family court reform.

 
What Families Are Facing Right Now

Families in Clark County are facing the same crisis seen across the United States. Children are being lost between agencies that do not communicate. Parents’ warnings are ignored. Abuse disclosures are minimized or mishandled. Police reports do not always reach caseworkers. Child welfare records do not always reach judges. Schools, courts, law enforcement, and family services often operate in separate lanes, even when the same child is at risk.

 

This creates dangerous gaps. A judge may not have the police report. A caseworker may not have the school records. A school may not know there is an active custody or safety concern. A parent may be excluded from critical information. A child may show signs of distress, and no one agency sees the full picture.

 

These are not just administrative problems. These are child safety problems. When agencies do not communicate, children fall through the cracks. When courts do not receive complete information, unsafe decisions can be made. When families are silenced or overwhelmed, the system protects itself instead of protecting the child.

 

The Clark County Jeriko Act exists because those walls need to come down.

 
What the Clark County Jeriko Act Will Do

The Clark County Jeriko Act is a local child safety and family court accountability proposal designed to improve communication, oversight, and transparency between the systems responsible for protecting children and families. The Act would support the creation of a local interagency communication and accountability framework connecting:

 

1. Clark County child welfare agencies
   2. Family court
   3. Law enforcement
   4. Schools
   5. Mental health providers
   6. Domestic violence support services
   7. Veterans and military family services
   8. Human trafficking response programs
   9. Foster care oversight systems
   10. Court-appointed professionals

The purpose is simple: no child should become invisible because agencies failed to communicate.

 

The Clark County Jeriko Act would create a local foundation for better record-sharing, judicial review, agency accountability, civilian oversight, and early-risk identification. It would also support the larger national Jeriko Act effort by proving that reform can begin at the county level and grow into state and federal change.

 
Key Protections in the Clark County Jeriko Act

The Clark County Jeriko Act would call for:

 

Improved communication between child welfare, police, courts, schools, and service providers. A local interagency safety review process so critical records, reports, and concerns are not ignored or hidden. 

 

Judicial review logs to document what information was available, what was reviewed, and what was omitted from court decision-making. Civilian review and oversight of child welfare failures, foster care concerns, and court-connected professionals.

 

Clear accountability for false testimony, failure to investigate, failure to disclose material information, or mishandling of child safety concerns. Stronger protections for parents who raise abuse concerns in good faith. Local reform of TPO and custody-related processes to reduce misuse, misrepresentation, and weaponized allegations.

 

State-employed or independently assigned therapeutic providers in high-conflict custody and abuse-related cases to reduce financial bias and manipulation. Mandatory comprehensive psychological evaluations in serious abuse, domestic violence, alienation, or child-safety-related custody disputes.

 

Expanded resources for male domestic violence victims, mothers, children, veterans, and families who do not fit traditional victim-service models.

 

Improved protections for military families and children affected by relocation, deployment, or jurisdictional confusion. Human trafficking screening, safe housing referrals, counseling, and reintegration support for children and families.

 

Improved foster care oversight through audits, therapy compliance tracking, and child safety monitoring. Emergency local law enforcement response options in extreme child concealment, parental kidnapping, or immediate danger situations. Responsible use of technology to flag patterns of abuse, neglect, fraud, missing records, repeated reports, or agency inaction.

 

A local reporting pathway for family court, child welfare, parental alienation, and agency misconduct concerns.

 
Why Clark County Matters

Clark County can become the starting point.

 

National reform is necessary, but national reform often begins with a local model. The Clark County Jeriko Act gives our community the opportunity to lead. If Clark County can build a stronger system of communication, transparency, and oversight, that model can be used to support reform across Nevada and eventually across the United States.

 

This petition supports both:

1. The Clark County Jeriko Act as the local reform effort; and
2. The national Jeriko Act as the broader federal reform movement.

The goal is not to create another layer of bureaucracy. The goal is to make sure that the agencies already responsible for child safety are finally required to communicate, document, disclose, and act.

 
Why This Matters

Children are not dying because no one saw the warning signs. Many times, someone did see them. The problem is that the information was separated, ignored, minimized, delayed, or hidden inside disconnected systems. Parents are being destroyed by family court processes that are too expensive, too confusing, and too vulnerable to manipulation. Children are being placed at risk because the court does not always receive the full picture. Veterans and military families face additional barriers when jurisdiction, records, relocation, and trauma intersect. Male victims of domestic violence often receive little to no support. Human trafficking victims are missed because systems are not connected.

 

The walls between these systems are harming families. The Clark County Jeriko Act is about bringing those walls down, locally first, nationally next.

 
What We Are Asking

We are asking Clark County leaders, Nevada officials, community organizations, survivor advocates, child welfare professionals, legal professionals, veterans’ advocates, and concerned citizens to support the Clark County Jeriko Act as a local reform model.

 

We are asking for action that:

 

1. Protects children before tragedy happens.
2. Requires agencies to communicate with one another.
3. Creates transparency in child welfare and family court processes.
4. Ensures judges receive complete and accurate information.
5. Supports survivors, including women, men, children, veterans, and military families.
6. Protects parents who report abuse in good faith.
7. Prevents children from being lost between systems.
8. Creates oversight for DCFS, foster care, and court-connected professionals.
9. Uses technology responsibly to identify risk and prevent harm.
10. Builds a Clark County model that can support national reform through the Jeriko Act.

This is how local reform becomes national change.

 
Your Signature Can Change Everything

By signing this petition, you are standing with:

 

Children who are silenced.
Parents who are ignored.
Families harmed by agency failures.
Survivors of domestic violence.
Male victims who have no resources.
Veterans and military families caught between systems.
Children in foster care who deserve oversight.
Human trafficking victims who deserve safety.
Pro se parents who cannot fight a broken system alone.
Families who deserve truth, transparency, and accountability.

 

Most importantly, you are standing with children like my son Jeriko, and every child who deserves to be seen, heard, and protected.

 

Please sign today to support the Clark County Jeriko Act and help build the local foundation for the national Jeriko Act reform movement.

For Jeriko. For Clark County. For every child who needs us.

 

For more information please visit thereformproject.us