April 17, 2020 April 28, 2020 Child Welfare COVID
California advocacy letter
February 10, 2021 Child Welfare COVID
A group of child welfare advocates in California have jointly issued recommendations for state policy makers on how to implement the Chafee funds provided through the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021
A copy of the letter is available here.
February 9, 2021 February 9, 2021 Child Welfare COVID
February 9, 2021 op-ed by Megan Henry in the Columbus Dispatch
"Having a relief package like that was a big boost to my morale," said the 20-year-old. "It's very comforting and it's a lot of relief and stress off my shoulders."
Sandhu entered the foster care system when he was 15and emancipated after he graduated from Findlay High School in northwest Ohio in 2019.
Read the full op-ed here.
Former foster youth engage First Lady
September 28, 2020 September 28, 2020 Child Welfare COVID
Former foster youth affiliated with the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute's Foster Youth Intern Program write to the First Lady to thank her for her support of the Supporting Foster Youth and Families through the Pandemic Act, a bipartisan bill introduced by Representatives Danny Davis and Jackie Walorski. "The provisions of this legislation would make a significant difference for older foster youth facing unprecedented stress amid the COVID-19 pandemic. However, to make this a reality and deliver the necessary relief, we now need Congress to come together and act and pass this legislation."
Letter here.
July 30, 2020 Child Welfare COVID
Arizona Republic, July 29, 2020
"The Arizona Department of Child Safety has advised foster parents and relatives who care for kids in DCS custody that the children should attend school in person, whenever schools reopen."
Suzanne Cordiero, a foster parent, said the people actually caring for the child in their homes should determine what's the best school option. A blanket order — even with some exceptions, which DCS says it will consider — signals that foster kids aren't the same as other kids, she said.
July 27, 2020 July 28, 2020 Grace Colley
Nashville, TN – The Tennessee Department of Education released the Initial COVID-19 Impact Report, which provides context and data on the impact extended school closure has had on the wellbeing of students and the current effect the global pandemic has had on children and families.
On the heels of Williamson County Schools announcing its hybrid reopening plan for the 2020-21 school year on Thursday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report emphasizing the importance of children returning to school.
Getting foster children placed in a safe home can often be challenging for foster care agencies and in this pandemic, the struggle has only increased.
SARASOTA, Fla. (WWSB) – Last year, more than 1,000 children in Sarasota and Manatee Counties were taken from their homes and placed in Florida's foster care system – many having lived through extremely traumatizing experiences. However, now during this pandemic, the demand has become even greater.
Preliminary data shows that reports of child abuse around the nation have plunged during the coronavirus pandemic and lockdown, according to an NBC News analysis, while experts are concerned there could be an unseen surge in abuse behind closed doors due to COVID-19 related unemployment and financial strain.
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto is doing what she can to help foster youth. In light of recent reports that foster youth aging out of the system during the coronavirus pandemic are at an increased risk for homelessness, Senator Cortez Masto is cosponsoring legislation to help provide stable housing options for foster care youth transitioning to adulthood.
The report provides context and data on the impact school closures have had on students' wellbeing and the effect the pandemic has had on children.
One goal was to push for passage of the Emergency Family Stabilization Act, a bipartisan-sponsored bill that would provide emergency funding to community organizations to address the needs of homeless youth during the pandemic. SchoolHouse Connection is urging Congress to include it in the next COVID funding bill.
ABILENE, Texas — Two out of every 10 kids across the country are neglected, physically abused or sexually abused, according to the Regional Victim Crisis Center in Abilene.
While more kids have been staying home because of COVID-19, experts believe that number could rise.
FRANKFORT, Ky. (WTVQ) – The public is invited to virtual town hall meetings to discuss improving outcomes for Kentucky children and families involved in the state foster care system.
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — The COVID-19 pandemic changed so many things like government agencies and services they provide, including the child welfare system. The way the system had worked previously was reactive. Students spend time in school, they're watched by adults, adults call in to Child Protective Services if they notice incidents of abuse or neglect. With children no longer in schools and with returning to class in the fall in question, they've pivoted from reactive to proactive.
As we navigate the effects of a global pandemic and economic recession, we have the opportunity to rethink the ways we provide services and supports to children and families before they find themselves in crisis. Essential to this new thinking is the realignment of our systems to make them more prevention-oriented, integrated, science-informed, and equitable, and thereby better meeting the needs of children and families, not just during this pandemic, but into the future.
NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with Amit Paley of The Trevor Project about its recent survey on the mental health of LGBTQ youth and how being quarantined in unsupportive households is affecting their lives.
Foster and adoptive parents like Briaddy are struggling to reassure their kids and create a sense of normalcy in a frightening and unprecedented time. But they are doing so knowing the children they are caring for have already experienced significant disruption and loss.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida's juvenile-justice system has topped 300 cases of COVID-19, with 152 youths and 152 workers testing positive, according to numbers released Tuesday by the Department of Juvenile Justice.
Child welfare agencies are worried about devastating cuts to their already limited funding, as Ohio and states all over the country face severe budget shortfalls, and Leader McConnell and President Trump refuse to help.
Child welfare workers who relied on virtual technology for some non-emergency family visits during the pandemic are now prioritizing face-to-face meetings as a better way to identify abuse and neglect, the Department of Children and Families Services said Tuesday.
Last week, Youth Services Insider looked at the fresh round of numbers from the Annie E. Casey Foundation's juvenile detention surveys, which found that during the coronavirus pandemic, admissions to those facilities continue to be low while releases from them have slowed considerably.
July 9, 2020 The Statesman
State officials have proposed cutting $133 million in health services from the current budget, whittling away dollars in women's health, child abuse protection and services for adults and children with disabilities, according to advocates.
The cuts are in response to a May 20 directive from Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dennis Bonnen to state agencies to cut 5% from their current two-year budgets as the state grapples with the spread of the coronavirus and a weakening economy. The proposal by Texas Health and Human Services Commission, which consumes the largest portion of the state's spending after education, could potentially reverse legislative requirements to better oversee child care facilities and court-ordered mandates to improve the state's beleaguered foster care system.
The proposal is also sparse on details about how women's health, family violence prevention programs and services for individuals with traumatic brain injuries — all mentioned as possible cuts — would be affected.
July 11, 2020 July 11, 2020 Child Welfare COVID
July 9, 2020 Chronicle of Social Change
Almost 100 children and teens living in residential facilities in California have caught the coronavirus, state officials confirmed this week, including infections at four group care programs in Los Angeles County.
The number of infected children is a fraction of the more than 2,600 foster youth in residential programs in the state. But it is nonetheless a sign of the rampage the virus has been on of late – striking not only prisons and nursing homes, but centers for children who have been taken from their parents due to abuse or neglect. Some youth have been sent to quarantine in trailers.
Los Angeles County Department of Public Health Barbara Ferrer on Wednesday suggested that deaths in the county could soon rise thanks to an increasing number of coronavirus-related hospitalizations.
"We should be worried because there are a lot less eyes on these facilities, especially now during the pandemic," said Jacqueline Robles, a 21-year-old former foster youth working as a peer advocate for the law firm representing Los Angeles County children.
July 8, 2020 July 9, 2020 Grace Colley
As COVID-19 infection rates and hospitalizations continue to reach record levels in Arizona, some advocates worry that children in detention and rehabilitation centers are at risk and in the blind spot of public health agencies that are grappling with a furious spread of the illness in the broader community.
Arizona is the site of one of the largest outbreaks at a child rehabilitation center in the country, with the Mingus Mountain Academy having 92 confirmed COVID-19 cases among the children it houses. Another 20 staff members tested positive for the virus.
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