The alternative response pilot project in Minnesota was a programmatic response and an attempt to attend to cases at the less critical end of the maltreatment spectrum in a noncoercive way, providing services when needed, where services have infrequently been provided before, in the hope the problems would not become more acute. The evaluation of the PSOP validated the expectation that greater investment in effort and service dollars up front would thin the stream of families reappearing in the child protection system. Classic assessments of child protection in the United States describe a system able to provide services only to the most severely abused and neglected children. With the support of a grant, the Minnesota Department of Human Services elected to begin addressing the underserved and at-risk population with the piloting of the PSOP. PSOP is a prevention and early intervention program focused on families who have children under the age of six and who have been reported for child maltreatment concerns but screened out from a formal child protection response. The PSOP began in April 2005 and continues through 2008. It tests the impact of early intervention on families at risk of child maltreatment. References