Featured NJ Research

How did you come to write about this subject? Did a book, a conversation, an article, or an experience inspire you?

My interest in the intersection of perinatal substance use and the child welfare system was inspired by my SPIA Policy Task Force’s (Advancing Birth Equity in New Jersey) visit to the Cooper Center for Healing in Camden, New Jersey last spring. From conversations with staff at Cooper and Pregnancy Justice, I learned that many states had recently reformed their CPS reporting requirements for prenatal substance exposure, but that there had not been much follow-up to see how these reforms were going.

What is the main idea you hope readers will take away from reading it?

I hope the readers will take away that policy implementation is just as important (if not more important!) than policy adoption. Proper implementation of CPS reporting reforms is essential to their ability to decrease fear for pregnant and parenting people with substance use disorder and to increase access to care. In particular, when healthcare providers and social workers have had a certain reporting practice for their entire career, proper training and hospital compliance enforcement mechanisms are essential for the reforms to be implemented successfully.

What’s a surprising thing that you learned (about policy, NJ, and/or yourself) along the way?

Before January 2026, New Jersey required all substance-exposed infants to be reported to the Division of Child Protection and Permanency (DCPP), including infants who were exposed to prescribed medications used to treat opioid use disorder (MOUDs). There were no exceptions for mothers who were in treatment and recovering from their substance use disorder (SUD). Now, as of January 20, 2026, prenatal substance exposure will no longer result in an automatic report to child welfare authorities; reports to DCPP will only be required if there are additional concerns of suspected child abuse or neglect. New Jersey is just one state out of 22 that has recently reformed its child welfare reporting policies for prenatal substance exposure, making reporting requirements less punitive in an attempt to increase access to prenatal care and SUD treatment.

What are your postgrad plans, immediate and/or in the long term?

I will be a Garden State Fellow for SPIA in NJ! (Pending Monday) I will be working at the New Jersey Department of Health's Division of Family Health Services, working on improving maternal and infant health in New Jersey, including the reform that my thesis evaluates.

How did you come to write about this subject? Did a book, a person, or an experience inspire you?

As a study break while I was putting the finishing touches on my JP, I tuned in to the oral arguments in Mahmoud v. Taylor, a case in the Supreme Court that I had been following for my Policy Research Seminar, “Religion and Public Policy.” As I listened to the case unfold, I knew it would be consequential regardless of how it was decided. My interest in religion and the law was born during a moot court exercise in high school in which we re-created Fulton v. City of Philadelphia over zoom. I had also been cultivating a foundation in education policy as a SPIA major and Teacher Prep minor, and I thought an exploration of Mahmoud v. Taylor was a fitting way to draw upon all of these interests in my thesis.

What is the main idea you want readers to take away from reading it?

Negotiating policy, especially for schools at the hyper-local level is hard, but pays off immensely. 

What’s a surprising thing that you learned (about policy, NJ, and/or yourself) along the way?

I also spent this semester student teaching as a part of my minor in Teacher Preparation, so most of my days this spring were spent in an AP World History classroom at Princeton High School. I learned an unfathomable amount from that experience teaching, observing and going to meetings, which provided a robust foundation for my exploration of school governance in my thesis. I really appreciated the cross section of school, district, and state policy that I got to witness as a student teacher, and I recommend it to anyone interested in education policy.

What are your postgrad plans, immediate and/or in the long term?

I’ll be back in Princeton next fall for my last semester of student teaching with the Teacher Prep program, and after that I will do whatever I can to expand access to civics education across America, wherever it takes me.