Tagged With "National Foster Care Month"
Blog Post
New Mexico Agrees to Revamp Its 'Broken' Foster Care System [nytimes.com]
By Dan Levin, The New York Times, March 26, 2020 Kevin S., a teenage victim of sexual abuse, has spent most of his life cycling in and out of nearly a dozen foster homes in New Mexico and treatment centers across the West, including one where he claimed he was restrained and “repeatedly harmed” by staff members and other residents. Diana D., a teenager with severe mental health disorders, entered the New Mexico foster care system when she was 14, and over the next 12 months was prescribed...
Blog Post
New Organization Boosts Growing Movement of Former Foster Youth [chronicleofsocialchange.org]
In the last 20 years, there’s been a noticeable uptick in the size and reach of foster care alumni networking organizations and events nationwide. Shalita O’Neale has been an active participant in this movement while running her company, Fostering Change Network LLC (FCN). After O’Neale’s mother died when she was 2, the Baltimore, Maryland, native shuttled between family members until officially entering the foster care system at age 13. She has spent her career using that experience to try...
Blog Post
New Podcast Series Advocates for Foster Youth [chronicleofsocialchange.org]
After leaving foster care, Jessica Francis had to grow up alone, often looking to Google for guidance. “I had to figure out a lot of things on my own,” Francis said in an interview on the Foster Movement Podcast , produced by the Christian Alliance for Orphans (CAFO). In the podcast’s pilot episode, Francis shared her personal experience of navigating the foster care system starting at age of 12 before later pursuing higher education and career. Without any other options, young adults...
Blog Post
New Study on Special Ed & Child Welfare-Involved Youth
Dear ACEs Connection Community, Wanted to share some of my new work out in Children and Youth Services Review on the factors predicting whether Child Welfare Services-involved youth receive special education. I find that foster youth have a higher probability of receiving special ed vs. children in the care of an adoptive/biological parent. Given current school closures, supporting foster families educating kids with special needs will be critical. You can access the article for free (until...
Blog Post
New Tool Kit Helps Child Welfare Leaders Utilize Data to Support Expectant and Parenting Youth [CSSP.org]
Being a parent is hard at any age, but it can be even harder for younger moms and dads. And harder yet for young parents in foster care. To support these young parents and their families, systems leaders—ranging from child welfare to education to juvenile justice—need reliable data to guide policies and practices. Yet, according to Tammi Fleming, senior associate with the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative : “Data on expectant and parenting youth in foster...
Blog Post
New Tutoring Program Aims to Help Students in Foster Care Stay in School [ny1.com]
Rajiv Goswami invited two people to his high school graduation: his tutor, Dylan, and his mother, who needed permission from a judge to attend. "This was the milestone I had to pass," Goswami said. Rajiv spent the past four years in the foster care system and by donning a cap and gown, he was beating the odds. Just a third of city kids in foster care get their high school diploma. Follow here to watch the New York 1 news report by education reporter Linsey Christ.
Blog Post
New UCLA Research Center Will Focus on Preventing Entries into Foster Care, Needs of Foster Youth (chronicleofsocialchange.org)
Thanks to a $10 million philanthropic donation , the University of California, Los Angeles will establish a new research center dedicated to addressing the complex needs of children in foster care, particularly related to the educational system. The Pritzker Center for Strengthening Children and Families aims to be a hub of collaborative research with the goal of strengthening vulnerable families and helping to prevent many children in Los Angeles County from entering the foster care system.
Blog Post
New York Child Welfare Leader Takes Up Obama Legacy, Foster Care Hackathons [chronicleofsocialchange.org]
In May, a couple hundred technologists, child welfare experts and foster youth gathered on the grounds of the White House for the first foster care hackathon to reach such national prominence. During the last hour of the two-day event , Rafael López, who leads President Obama’s Administration for Children, Youth and Families , offered a chance for participants to share their commitments in regards to fomenting increased use of technology in child welfare. One of the hands that went up was...
Blog Post
New York Expands Eligibility for Kin Who Want to Foster Children [chronicleofsocialchange.org]
By Rachel Nielsen, The Chronicle of Social Change, November 14, 2019 When caseworkers remove children from their homes and place them into foster care, it can be jarring and traumatic. A new law in New York aims to ease the transition by enabling a wider circle of family members and even non-relatives to become the kids’ foster parents. That law, which Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) signed in late October, broadens the definition of relatives. Previously, only certain blood relatives of a parent of a...
Blog Post
New York’s parent defender model lowers reliance on foster care [chronicleofsocialchange.org]
New York City’s brand of wrap-around legal representation may not prevent the removal of children from their families. But they might be getting home much faster, and without any risk to their safety. A much-anticipated study of parent representation released this week found that for parents represented by interdisciplinary law offices (ILO) – which include lawyers, social workers and parent advocates – youth spend about four fewer months in foster care than in cases represented by...
Blog Post
No Foster Home…Then What? [chronicleofsocialchange.org]
Is there a shortage of foster homes in the United States? If so, is the shortage widespread or localized? To find answers to these questions, I looked at federal data, research by the Casey Foundation, information from state program directors and evidence from hundreds of recent news reports documenting critical local shortages throughout our nation. The overwhelming message is that we have fewer foster homes than in the past and recruitment is becoming quite difficult. The foster home...
Blog Post
No More Missed Goodbyes: Promoting Greater Placement Stability for California Foster Youth [chronicleofsocialchange.org]
On February 12 , 200 California Youth Connection (CYC) members, allies and community members gathered to celebrate 30 years of the organization’s youth-led advocacy in California, and to continue the fight with a new bill to prevent unnecessary placement changes for foster youth in the state. That day, the steps of California State Capitol in Sacramento resonated with the voices of current and former foster youth, who chanted “C’mon, c’mon, join the fight! Stability is our right!” and “CYC...
Blog Post
North Dakota Trauma Initiative Sparked at August 16th U.S. Senate Field Hearing and Roundtable in Bismarck
Dr. Tami DeCoteau, holds the sign-up sheet for a North Dakota trauma initiative, flanked by Dr. Zach Kaminsky, (left), Dr. Mary Cwik, (right) of the Center for American Indian Health, Johns Hopkins University, and Megan DesCamps, health policy advisor for U.S. Senator Heitkamp ________________________ There is often a distinct event that leaders in the trauma movement mention when asked about how it all got started in their community. Many times it is when one of the authors of the ACE...
Blog Post
Nothing But Bad News in the “Ever in Foster Care” Report [chronicleofsocialchange.org]
By John Kelly, The Chronicle of Social Change, January 26, 2020. A new federal report has found nothing new: time in foster care is associated with negative circumstances later in life. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) just published findings from a fairly novel approach to assessing the impact of foster care experience as people move from young adulthood into middle age-dom. A group of researchers within HHS used six years of responses to the National Survey of Family...
Blog Post
Nurturing Children During Times of Stress: A Guide to Help Children Bloom by Yolo CAPC and YCCA
The Yolo County Child Abuse Prevention Council (CAPC) and Yolo County Children’s Alliance (YCCA) are excited to share Nurturing Children During Times of Stress: A Guide to Help Children Bloom. This guide for parents and caregivers, which we are launching during Child Abuse Prevention Month, contains tips and resources that parents and caregivers can use to promote resilience in their children and themselves. Nurturing Children During Times of Stress explains the effects of intense stress or...
Blog Post
On Child Welfare, an Insufficient Federal Response to the Opioid Epidemic [chronicleofsocialchange.org]
In 2012, following more than a decade of significant decline, the number of American children in foster care began rising. Between 2012 and 2016, the number of children in foster care nationally has increased by more than 10 percent. There is broad agreement that the ongoing opioid epidemic has been a primary contributor to those increases. Now, a recent research brief issued by the U.S Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and...
Blog Post
One-Third of California Foster Youth Leave Transitional Housing Involuntarily, Report Finds (chronicleofsocialchange.org)
More than a third of older foster youth in transitional housing placements in California were involuntarily removed, according to a new report. A John Burton Advocates for Youth report looks at how youth in California used the Transitional Housing Placement-Plus (THP-Plus) and THP-Plus Foster Care (THP+FC) programs during the 2016-2017 year and how they fared upon exiting, in addition to other data. The California state legislature created the THP-Plus Program in 2001 in response to high...
Blog Post
Oregon foster care system targeted in federal lawsuit [Daily Mail]
SALEM, Ore. (AP) - Oregon's foster care system has failed to shield children from abuse and they are sometimes forced to stay in refurbished jail cells and homeless shelters, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday. The 77-page complaint filed in U.S. District Court details stories of foster children being neglected or harmed while under Department of Human Services care, including a 16-year-old girl sent to a juvenile jail after she had previously tried to kill herself. The agency has...
Blog Post
Oregon foster youths seek $8.5M to help those aging out of foster care [Street Roots News]
Expansion proposed of Child Welfare’s Independent Living Program and other transition services Whitney Rodgers has spent nearly half her life moving from placement to placement in the foster care system, but it wasn’t until she turned 17 that she began to worry about what came next – after foster care. “I was always expecting there to be another step or two before I turned 18,” she said. “But then, at 17, I thought, the clock’s running out.” Rodgers admitted she had always been a flight risk...
Blog Post
Oregon psychiatrist testifies before Senate Finance Committee on the impact of childhood adversity and toxic stress on adult health
Appearing before the powerful Senate Finance Committee in Washington, DC, recently, Dr. Maggie Bennington-Davis, psychiatrist and chief medical officer of Health Share Oregon, devoted a significant portion of her testimony to the role of adversity and toxic stress during childhood on adult health, both physical and emotional. She explained how Health Share Oregon—that state’s largest Medicaid coordinated care organization—examined the people with the costliest health bills and found them to...
Blog Post
Oregon sends hundreds of foster kids to former jails, institutions, not families
ROSEBURG — A move to improve the care of foster children relegated to living in hotels has resulted in 25 percent more children removed from their families being housed in institutions such as former juvenile jails, The Oregonian/OregonLive has found. The children being sent to cinderblock facilities are often the most traumatized and difficult to care for. Most are teens but the state is looking at expanding institutional programs for children as young as six. A year ago, Oregon child...
Blog Post
Our Foster-Care System Shouldn’t Separate Families Either (thenation.com)
The research is clear on the psychological and physical damage these practices inflict: Parent-child separations lead to increased anxiety and depression, lower IQs, and post-traumatic stress disorder in children. At least in theory, the federal government agrees. In an interview last year in The Chronicle of Social Change , Jerry Milner, associate commissioner of the Children’s Bureau, rightly said : “We should consciously avoid inflicting psychological and emotional damage to children in...
Blog Post
Our Most Vulnerable Population - Grandparents Raising Grandchildren
Before the pandemic, grandparents raising grandchildren were already in a precarious situation. They were struggling to meet the needs of children exposed to maltreatment and trauma while also supporting the family financially. But now, we fear, things have made a critical turn for the worse while those grandparents become unemployed, sick, or in the worst-case scenario, die due to Corona Virus.
Blog Post
Over 14,000 CA foster youth facing end to critical services
May is National Foster Care Month. If foster youth are not reunified with their families or adopted by age 21, youth “age out” of the state’s foster care system and services often end abruptly. In 2015, more than 14,000 California foster youth—nearly a quarter of all those in care statewide—were between the ages of 16 and 20 years old.
Blog Post
Parent Mentoring Program in L.A. County Helps Reunify Families Separated by Foster Care [chronicleofsocialchange.org]
Parent mentors, or parent partners are such a critical component of a successful child welfare system. Families served through L.A. County child welfare are reaping the benefits of their local program. Stephanie Moreno says losing her children to Child Protective Services (CPS) back in 2015 was the hardest thing she’s ever had to deal with. A family member called CPS on Moreno, accusing her of using drugs and knowingly allowing someone to sexually abuse her daughter. As it turned out, it was...
Blog Post
Parenting Matters: Supporting Parents of Children Ages 0-8 (The National Academies Press 2016)
A study published by The National Academies of Sciences in 2016 resulting in 10 Recommendations to build support for parents... "Over the past several decades, researchers have identified parenting- related knowledge, attitudes, and practices that are associated with improved developmental outcomes for children and around which parenting- related programs, policies, and messaging initiatives can be designed. However, consensus is lacking on the elements of parenting that are most important...
Blog Post
Parenting with PTSD One Liners & Parenting with ACEs Chat Reminder
Parents with PTSD from ACEs sharing what's hard about parenting while post-traumatically stressed: "Managing the terror around the possibility of everyone being a perp." "How to talk to children about why they won't meet X relative." “There was a point when I would feel completely overwhelmed by something as simple as having to make breakfast and school lunches at the same time.” "I didn't understand that not all parents reacted or were triggered the way I was." "was stone set on not...
Blog Post
Parents’ emotional trauma may change their children’s biology. Studies in mice show how [sciencemag.org]
By Andrew Curry, Science, July 18, 2019. ZURICH, SWITZERLAND— The children living in SOS Children's Villages orphanages in Pakistan have had a rough start in life. Many have lost their fathers, which in conservative Pakistani society can effectively mean losing their mothers, too: Destitute widows often struggle to find enough work to support their families and may have to give up their children. The orphanages, in Multan, Lahore, and Islamabad, provide shelter and health care and send kids...
Blog Post
Parents worrying about coronavirus' toll on children's learning survey finds [edsource.org]
By John Fensterwald, EdSource, April 23, 2020 Buffeted by the coronavirus’ impact on their lives and on schools, Californians expressed worry about the spread of the pandemic and their personal finances, and parents in particular said they were concerned about school closures’ impact on their children’s ability to learn. But in an annual voter survey by the Public Policy Institute of California , they also gave high marks to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s handling of K-12 education and to their school...
Blog Post
Partners in Planning – When parents are supported to participate in planning, we can make better decisions [risemagazine.org]
This story is part of Rise's series by frontline staff at foster care agencies about their experiences working with parents. Recently, I facilitated a Family Team Meeting with a mother who was going through tremendous stress. (To protect her privacy, I’ll just call her “Mom.”) Her partner had recently died and she’d been diagnosed with a serious illness. She also suffered from anxiety and depression. Up until the series of crises in her life, she’d worked, had an apartment, cared for her...
Blog Post
Building Resilience in Foster Children: The Role of the Child's Advocate [repository.law.umich.edu]
Children who enter the foster care system often suffer from the effects of traumatic stress. The sources of their trauma may vary: they may be the victims of physical abuse, sexual abuse, or neglect-or they may be exposed to violence in their homes or communities. Similarly, many children who enter the child welfare system have experienced the loss of one or more significant adults in their lives, often through death or abandonment. Although the removal of a child from an abusive or...
Blog Post
California Considers a “Bat-Signal” for Foster Youth in Distress [chronicleofsocialchange.org]
The woman used a thick extension cord on her foster children. Welts rose. Bruises formed. Fear became the norm inside the Watts neighborhood home in Los Angeles where LaToya Cooper and six other children were sent to live. But no one believed the then-fifth grader. Not Cooper’s teachers. Not the police. [For more on this story by Susan Abram, go to https://chronicleofsocialchange.org/child-welfare-2/california-considers-a-bat-signal-for-foster-youth-in-distress/30903 ]
Blog Post
California Guidelines for the Use of Psychotropic Medication with Children and Youth in Foster Care
California Department of Social Services and Department of Health Services Care ( The California Department of Health Care Services and Department of Social Services released this guide to best practices for the treatment of mental...
Blog Post
California has Begun Screening for Early Childhood Trauma, But Critics Urge Caution [sciencemag.org]
By Emily Underwood, Science, January 29, 2020 On 1 January, California became the first U.S. state to screen for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs)—early life hardships such as abuse, neglect, and poverty, which can have devastating health consequences in later life. The project is not just a public health initiative, but a vast experiment. State officials aim to cut the health impacts of early life adversity by as much as half within a generation. But critics say the health benefits of...
Blog Post
California Looks to Expand Financial Aid Access for Foster Youth [chronicleofsocialchange.org]
A California legislator is looking to amend the state’s college aid program for foster youth so it covers more students and loses fewer of them to academic problems. The Chafee Education and Training Voucher (ETV) is a federal-state match program that provides up to $5,000 per year to current or former foster youth to help with the costs of college. Introduced by State Sen. Jim Beall (D), Senate Bill 150 would shift the way ETV grant payments are distributed and set unique ground rules for...
Blog Post
Can Trained, Paid Peer Support Help New York City Keep Foster Parents? [chronicleofsocialchange.org]
By Megan Conn, The Chronicle of Social Change, December 2, 2019 When Roxanne Williams became a foster parent four years ago, she started in the deep end of the parenting pool. New York City child welfare workers brought her a boy with limited English on a Friday afternoon and left after confirming her home was safe, leaving Williams to muddle through their first days together on her own. “It was rough – you weren’t getting the calls back [from her foster care agency] as fast as you wanted...
Blog Post
Can We Please Fix the Interstate Placement of Children in Foster Care? [ChronicleOfSocialChange.org]
Consider, for a moment , this story I recently discovered in court transcripts. A paternal grandmother living in New York City learns that her 1-year-old grandson is in Michigan’s foster care system. Days after the child’s removal, she immediately contacts the child’s foster care worker, travels to Michigan, attends the court hearing and requests that the child be placed with her, instead of strangers. It turns out that she raised the child for the first few months of his life, and the...
Blog Post
Capitol Tracker: Bills hope to help foster youth (times-standard.com)
To assist some of California’s foster youth, there are more than a dozen proposed pieces of legislation working their way through various state Assembly and Senate committees. Several of the bills are hitting committee hearings this week. Activities funding >> Assemblyman Dante Acosta (D-Santa Clarita) introduced AB 754, which provides funding to help foster youth cover activities-related expenses. The funding would help cover costs for field trips, purchase caps and gowns for...
Blog Post
Caring adult relationships can make the difference for children in trauma [register-herald.com]
CHARLESTON — Social workers, law enforcement officers and other children’s advocates gathered Wednesday for the first day of the West Virginia Children’s Justice “Handle With Care” Conference to learn more about child trauma, intervention and ways to help children become successful. In a state that leads the nation for opioid overdose deaths and babies born with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome, West Virginia children are often witnesses to and victims of trauma. The West Virginia Defending...
Blog Post
Caring adult relationships can make the difference for children in trauma [register-herald.com]
Social workers, law enforcement officers and other children’s advocates gathered Wednesday for the first day of the West Virginia Children’s Justice “Handle With Care” Conference to learn more about child trauma, intervention and ways to help children become successful. In a state that leads the nation for opioid overdose deaths and babies born with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome, West Virginia children are often witnesses to and victims of trauma. The West Virginia Defending Childhood...
Blog Post
Caring for Children Who Have Experienced Trauma: A Workshop for Resource Parents [NCTSN Resource]
Many children in foster or kinship care have a history of exposure to trauma. Caring for Children Who Have Experienced Trauma: A Workshop for Resource Parents (RPC) is a PowerPoint-based training curriculum designed to be taught by a mental health...
Blog Post
‘Catching a Case: Inequality and Fear in New York City’s Child Welfare System’ [youthtoday.org]
Anthropologist Tina Lee immersed herself in the exotic culture of a child welfare agency, its folkways, “clients,” employees and contractors. She has returned with an eye-opening report. Anthropologists describe, not prescribe. Their expeditions yield close-up views of the rituals and radically different practices of far-away societies. With their help, we can reflect: Would we like to live like the Melanesians? How about the hunter-gatherer lifestyle? The tribes that Professor Lee studied...
Blog Post
Child Protection Agency in Australia Introduces Digital Memory Boxes for Kids in Foster Care
One of the lead child protection agencies in Australia, Barnardos Australia , has introduced a resource for children and youth in foster care : a digital “memory box” called MyStory . The purpose of the digital memory...
Blog Post
Child Welfare and Human Trafficking - Connections Rooted in Trauma
Recently in Washington State, there has been a massive, multi-pronged coordinated effort to address Commercially Sexually Exploited Children (CSEC) across systems. As this effort made its reach to child welfare, I was reminded of a documentary I watched years ago about two girls who were swept into a life of sexual exploitation, kept from their families and everything familiar. One of the girls was in and out of foster care and group homes, the other had run away from her family home, both...
Blog Post
Child Welfare Ideas from the Experts #1: Reducing Frequency of Foster Care Placements [SocialJusticeSolutions.org]
The Chronicle of Social Change is highlighting each of the policy recommendations made this summer by the participants of the Foster Youth Internship Program (FYI), a group of 12 former foster youths who have completed congressional internships. The program is overseen each summer by the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute. Each of the FYI participants crafted a policy recommendation during their time in Washington, D.C. Today we highlight the recommendation of Alexis Arambul, a...
Blog Post
Child Welfare Ideas from the Experts #1: Stable Placement Equals Stable Education [chronicleofsocialchange.org]
The Chronicle of Social Change is highlighting each of the policy recommendations made this summer by the participants of the Foster Youth Internship Program (FYI), a group of 10 former foster youths who have completed congressional internships. The program is overseen each summer by the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute. Each of the FYI participants crafted a policy recommendation during their time in Washington, D.C. Today we highlight the recommendation of Shay House, 22, an...
Blog Post
Child Welfare Ideas from the Experts #11: Connecting Aging-Out Youth to Behavioral Health Services [chronicleofsocialchange.org]
The Chronicle of Social Change is highlighting each of the policy recommendations made this summer by the participants of the Foster Youth Internship Program (FYI), a group of 12 former foster youths who have completed congressional internships. The program is overseen each summer by the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute. Each of the FYI participants crafted a policy recommendation during their time in Washington, D.C. Today we highlight the recommendation of Justin Abbasi, a...
Blog Post
Child Welfare Ideas from the Experts #12: Improved Matching in Foster Care
By John Kelly, August 30, 2019, for Chronicle for Social Change The Chronicle of Social Change is highlighting each of the policy recommendations made this summer by the participants of the Foster Youth Internship Program (FYI), a group of 12 former foster youths who have completed congressional internships. The program is overseen each summer by the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute. Each of the FYI participants crafted a policy recommendation during their time in Washington,...
Blog Post
Child Welfare Ideas from the Experts #2: Getting Serious About Siblings [chronicleofsocialchange.org]
The Chronicle of Social Change is highlighting each of the policy recommendations made this summer by the participants of the Foster Youth Internship Program (FYI), a group of 10 former foster youths who have completed congressional internships. The program is overseen each summer by the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute. Each of the FYI participants crafted a policy recommendation during their time in Washington, D.C. Today we highlight the recommendation of Brittney Barros, 20,...
Blog Post
Child Welfare Ideas from the Experts #3: Protecting LGBTQ Rights in Child Welfare [chronicleofsocialchange.org]
The Chronicle of Social Change is highlighting each of the policy recommendations made this summer by the participants of the Foster Youth Internship Program (FYI), a group of 10 former foster youths who have completed congressional internships. The program is overseen each summer by the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute. Each of the FYI participants crafted a policy recommendation during their time in Washington, D.C. Today we highlight the recommendation of Terrence Scraggins,...