Tagged With "Center on the Developing Child"
Blog Post
Introducing the Full Potential Parenting Podcast!
I'm excited to announce that The Full Potential Parenting Podcast is here! This podcast features short (6-12 min.) segments with stress release techniques that work, offers book reviews of books that have been transformational, informative, or inspiring, introduces concepts critical to any parent of a child who is experiencing big (and confusing) emotions and behaviors, and provides insights about non-pharma approaches to healing. The first few episodes are now available on iTunes here:...
Blog Post
Invest in Foster Children Today for a Better Tomorrow [ChronicleOfSocialChange.org]
According to federal data , there are more than427,000 in U.S. foster care and nearly 112,000 waiting to be adopted. Those of us committed to ensuring safety and security for these children are anxiously waiting to see what President-elect Donald Trump has to say about child welfare. Children in care didn’t come up during Mr. Trump’s campaign, as he focused on the economy, security, and immigration. As the country moves toward a government controlled by one party — the party that often...
Blog Post
Is child protective services effective?
An article called "Is child protective services effective?" in this month's Children and Youth Services Review finds that CPS involvement does not reduce the risk of further substantiated maltreatment. It highlights both the need to improve interventions and questions current mandates that are not garnering results. As the article explains, one possible reason interventions may be less effective is that most CPS cases are opened for neglect, not abuse, and most services are aimed at...
Blog Post
Is the Solution Really for More Children to Enter Foster Care? [chronicleofsocialchange.org]
Last week , in a provocative op-ed in the Washington Post , Naomi Schaefer Riley – a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute – argued that the problem in America’s child welfare system is “not that we’re taking too many children away from their parents. We’re not taking enough.” To support her claim, she cited a mishmash of statistics, including an increase in the national child fatality rate, and then some isolated data from two jurisdictions involving re-entry rates for children...
Blog Post
It started in her garage. Now, a Puyallup woman helps clothe almost 1,500 foster kids a year (The News Tribune)
It all started in Erika Thompson’s garage. Thompson, who has been a foster parent for a decade, remembers it well. Not long before, she welcomed the first of what would become many foster children into her home. Like many foster kids, the child arrived on Thompson’s doorstep in crisis and with almost nothing. The child was from King County, so Thompson was able to turn to a Seattle-based nonprofit that provides support and services for foster kids and their caregivers, including new and...
Blog Post
Join Feb. 18th webinar on addressing ACEs in public policy
Please join this ACEs Connection co-sponsored webinar "Making Meaningful Change: Addressing ACEs through Public Policy" on Feb. 18 (11:30 am-1:00 pm ET) presented by the Health Federation of Philadelphia and MARC (Mobilizing Action for Resilient Communities). In this webinar, three nationally recognized experts will discuss policy and advocacy strategies on a local, state, and national level using evidence from studies they have conducted with legislators and the general public. Speakers...
Blog Post
Keeping Kids in Families [AECF.org]
In this data snapshot, the Annie E. Casey Foundation examines how placements for young people in foster care have changed from 2007 to 2017. Using data from all 50 states and the District of Columbia, Casey finds that child welfare systems are doing a better job of placing kids in families. At the same time, racial disparities persist for kids of all ages and progress eludes teens in care. To push for further progress, the four-page snapshot tells how states can leverage the federal Family...
Blog Post
L.A. County to Implement State Plan to Prevent Unintended Pregnancies Among Youth (chronicleofsocialchange.org)
The state plan, “ California’s Plan for the Prevention of Unintended Pregnancies for Youth and Non-Minor Dependents ,” aims to address the fact that by age 21 over 1 in 3 girls in foster care will have given birth, according to a report by the Children’s Data Network. Representatives from all three departments, the child welfare advocacy community and at least one former foster youth will participate in developing the strategy. “What’s important here is to make sure we’re catering to the...
Blog Post
LA County to provide more support to relatives caring for foster children [svgtribune.com]
About 9,000 foster children in Los Angeles County — or 52 percent of all county foster youth — live with relatives, DCFS Director Philip Browning told the Board of Supervisors.
Blog Post
La Crosse County aims to tackle childhood trauma within foster care system [www.wxow.com]
Building on the momentum of sharing her message during Gov. Scott Walker's 2017 State of the State Address, first lady Tonnette Walker is continuing to promote her initiative "Fostering Futures." The idea behind the program is to aim to understand the effects of trauma in childhood and ask what happened to a child rather than what's wrong with them. "We started in 2013 really taking a closer look at training our foster care providers, adoptive parents and birth parents who have kids that...
Blog Post
LA Foster Families Suffer As Stipends Get Stuck In State’s Reform Bottleneck (witnessla.com)
In an effort to streamline the evaluation of a household’s fitness to take in a foster or adoptive child, California implemented a pilot project called Resource Family Approval (RFA) as a pillar of its reforms. On the surface this is a good thing, since it means that rather than putting a candidate through multiple processes of varying thoroughness for potential caregivers, the new process would offer a single, comprehensive standard that includes mandated foster parent training,...
Blog Post
LA lacks foster care families for infants, toddlers [scpr.org]
One of the most effective ways to compound the negative effects of trauma and adversity on the littlest, and most vulnerable served in child welfare are multiple placements. When any child in foster care is moved from placement to placement, it is traumatic. When infants and toddlers are moved from placement to placement, it can have a much greater impact on development because placement changes unstable primary attachments. For our littlest people, the relationship with a primary caregiver...
Blog Post
Left Behind: Trump's Immigration Plans Could Spur Uptick in Foster Care Numbers [socialjusticesolutions.org]
As we begin a new year, a new presidency, and new policies on immigration, it’s vital for child welfare leaders to increase coordination with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to address the impacts of deportation policies on children who remain in the US, often in a foster care placement, following the deportation of their parents. Having experienced a significant lack of coordination between child welfare and immigration systems, including barriers to reunification in my own practice,...
Blog Post
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Questioning, and/or Gender Nonconforming and Transgender Girls and Boys in the California Juvenile Justice System: A Practice Guide [nclrights.org]
If you are a child welfare professional working with youth in California, chances are this practice guide may be a useful resource! Developed by Impact Justice and the National Center for Lesbian Rights, and published in January 2017, this practice guide is designed to provide probation department practice guidelines, and policy recommendations for working with lesbian, gay, bisexual, questioning, and/or gender nonconforming and transgender girls and boys who interface with the California...
Blog Post
Live in a Poor Neighborhood? Better Be a Perfect Parent. [NYTimes.com]
Eline’s children feared going to sleep in the closet of their studio apartment, but it was the only place they would be safe from the rats. Covered in blankets from neck to toe, Eline would keep an eye on the kitchen entrance and followed the sounds of the rodents rummaging in the cupboards. I represented Eline (I can’t disclose her real name), a mother of two, in Bronx Family Court when she was charged with neglect. Her younger son had been deemed undernourished because of faltering weight.
Blog Post
Live in a Poor Neighborhood? Better Be a Perfect Parent (www.nytimes.com)
Note: An article by Emma S. Ketteringham that shows how the system traumatizes and re-traumatizes many children and their parents. My hope is that as we talk about trauma-informed, trauma-aware, self-healing and resilient communities we talk less about how people can do better, try harder and more about we can all be a safer, kinder and treat symptoms of adverse childhood experiences and adverse community experiences and focus on treating the causes of both instead. When I met Eline, she...
Blog Post
Live webcast with U.S. Representative Rosa DeLauro: how Congress is responding to families’ needs during the COVID-19 pandemic [Zero to Three]
Responding to Families’ Needs During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Conversation with Representative Rosa DeLauro, sponsored by Zero to Three Join ZERO TO THREE, Think Babies™, and partners this Friday, March 27 at 11 am EDT for a web broadcast with U.S. Representative Rosa DeLauro (CT-03) about how Congress is responding to families’ needs in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. She will share what is in the bill on issues such as child care, Early Head Start, and paid family and medical leave, and...
Blog Post
'Living death': Study suggests having kids in foster care bad for mothers [cbc.ca]
A new study out of the University of Manitoba shows kids are not the only ones affected by the child welfare system — mothers of children who have been taken into foster care see a significant deterioration in their health and social situation after apprehension. The study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, looked at the health records and other data of mothers whose first child was born in Manitoba between April 1998 and March 2011. Half of the mothers, just shy...
Blog Post
Los Angeles County caregivers working to get foster kids off psychiatric drugs
Psychiatric drugs like lithium, Depakote and Prozac remain a popular choice for care providers trying to calm angry, depressed or anxious children in the Los Angeles County foster care system, but the pills are losing fans amid concerns about side...
Blog Post
Love as Destiny: A Former Foster Youth's Journey in Motherhood [chronicleofsocialchange.org]
By Katarina Sayally, The Chronicle of Social Change, October 25, 2019 If you haven’t heard enough stories about what breaking the intergenerational cycle of foster care looks like, I want to share one. This is our story, and it’s a good one. When I found out I was pregnant, the only fear I had was, “What if my baby ends up in foster care?” As a former foster youth who works in the field, I am constantly reminded of this possibility. One study found that mothers in foster care were twice as...
Blog Post
Lucinda from Minnesota #FosterEquality
My childhood was filled with war and terror, from growing up in a war-torn country to fighting my own battle with accepting my identity as a Queer Black Muslim girl. I was born in Liberia during my country’s second civil war that displaced so many Liberian families. My family and I escaped the war and came to the US in 2002 but the trauma of war followed my family. My family was separated after my stepfather's PTSD started to impact his parenting. My first placement was St. Joseph’s Home For...
Blog Post
Making the Good Stuff Louder: Trauma Dad, Bryon Hamel
Byron Hamel, (AKA Trauma Dad ), is a filmmaker , children's rights and men's wellness advocate. He's also a father with "ACEs through the roof," who survived child torture at the hands of a man now on death row for infanticide. Before the Father & ACEs chat started last week (see full chat transcript ), we discussed if and how to give a trigger warning. Hamel's experienced horrific trauma during childhood. He didn't want to traumatize those on the chat but wanted to be honest.
Blog Post
Manchester's Childhood Trauma Response Program Attracts International Interest [nhpr.org]
A delegation of law enforcement and public health workers from Wales visited the Manchester Police Department Tuesday. They were there to learn about a city program that connects children who have experienced trauma with mental health services. The program (ACERT) trains police officers in the effects of trauma on child development, and coordinates with social workers to help recruit affected families into trauma-therapy and other programs. To read the article, click here . ACERT stands for...
Blog Post
MARCH 19, 3:30 PM EST: Top Trump Child Welfare Official and Former Foster Youth will Host COVID-19 Town Hall [chronicleofsocialchange.org]
By Daniel Heimpel, The Chronicle of Social Change, March 18, 2020 On Thursday, March 19, Jerry Milner of the federal Children’s Bureau is teaming up with former foster youth and tech entrepreneur Sixto Cancel to co-host a virtual town hall inviting foster youth to contribute to the fight against the coronavirus. “Those closest to the problem should be informing the solutions,” Cancel said as he frantically worked to put the event together from a Los Angeles hotel room. “We wanted to create a...
Blog Post
Mental Health Is The Biggest Issue Teens Face Today, New Research Shows (bustle.com)
A new survey from the Pew Research Center found that seven-in-10 teens identified anxiety and depression as a major problem they face, The New York Times reported. While being a teenager has long been synonymous with angst, it's important to distinguish typical teen behavior from anxiety and depression, which are diagnosable mental health conditions . Though issues like bullying, substance use disorder, alcohol consumption , and gang violence were also cited as problems, mental health was...
Blog Post
Minnesota Wrestles with Foster Care’s Role in Breaking up Black Families [chronicleofsocialchange.org]
On Dec. 3 , a 28-year-old black mother lost her parental rights to her four children – ages 1 to 9 – in a Minnesota courtroom, just outside the Twin Cities. Instead of opening presents with their mother, the children spent Christmas with a white family two hours away. Across the country, black parents – like this mother, whom we will call Jane R. to protect her privacy – are more likely to lose custody of their children than their white, Asian and Latino peers. While African Americans...
Blog Post
Missed Opportunities: Pathways from Foster Care to Youth Homelessness in America [voicesofyouthcount.org]
By Voices of Youth Count. Voices of Youth: Alanna’s Story Alanna is a 23-year-old woman living in Philadelphia. 1 She was placed in foster care at the age of three, along with three siblings, because her mother was using drugs. Alanna and her siblings spent 7 years in foster care. They were initially placed together in a foster home that Alanna described as abusive. According to Alanna, the child welfare agency “did nothing” the first time Alanna reported the abuse. After she reported the...
Blog Post
National Alliance for Drug Endangered Children: Building a Coordinated Response
The National Alliance for Drug Endangered Children training was presented as part of the Drug Endangered Children’s Initiative, a collaboration between the Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office, Plymouth County Outreach and the United Way of Greater Plymouth County’s Family Center which is funded by a federal grant from the Office for Victims of Crime.
Blog Post
National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being [Adverse Childhood Experiences in NSCAW # 20]
Why We Should Assess for ACEs in kids in the child welfare system. I don't know exactly how old this brief from the Administration on Children and Families from HHS is but the graphs say it all. However I will add a few points: 1....
Blog Post
Native American Children Protected in Groundbreaking Foster Care Settlement [youthtoday.org]
By Bette Fleishman, Youth Today, May 8, 2020 For decades, we have repeated and recapitulated: Our nation’s foster care system is broken. New Mexico, which receives the lowest markers of child wellbeing and the second-highest level of childhood poverty, has, not coincidentally, one the worst child welfare systems in the nation. It is largely coercive and punitive, and disproportionately targets low-income children of color. Further, 23 Native American tribes and pueblos are located in the...
Blog Post
Native American Children Protected in Groundbreaking Foster Care Settlement [youthtoday.org]
By Bette Fleishman, Youth Today, May 8, 2020 For decades, we have repeated and recapitulated: Our nation’s foster care system is broken. New Mexico, which receives the lowest markers of child wellbeing and the second-highest level of childhood poverty, has, not coincidentally, one the worst child welfare systems in the nation. It is largely coercive and punitive, and disproportionately targets low-income children of color. Further, 23 Native American tribes and pueblos are located in the...
Blog Post
State, University researchers seek solutions to disproportionate foster placements among Native kids [wakemag.org]
Minnesota has put more Native American children in foster care than any other state in the nation. Despite being one of the least-represented minorities in Minnesota, nearly one in every 10 Native children is in the foster system, compared to only one in every 100 white children. One of key individuals who has spearheaded research into this issue is Professor Priscilla Day, director of the Center for Regional and Tribal Child Welfare at the University of Minnesota-Duluth. Day has focused on...
Blog Post
Needed: A New Vision of Foster Care [chronicleofsocialchange.org]
The number of children in foster care has increased for the third straight year. Foster parent shortages have been reported in at least 24 states , with children staying in offices and hotels. The move by some states to close residential programs will only exacerbate these shortages. At the same time, many current foster homes are failing to provide the nurturing and attention that their wards so desperately need. Yet child welfare leaders are surprisingly devoid of bold and creative ideas...
Blog Post
New federal program could help youths aging out of foster care in Maine [Portland Press Index]
By Eric Russell, Aug 1, 2019, Portland Press Index A new federal program targeting young people who age out of the foster care system could provide housing vouchers to as many as 25 youths in Greater Portland. U.S. Housing and Urban Development regional administrator David Tille will be in Portland on Friday to give more details about the initiative that was announced last week by HUD Secretary Ben Carson. Rhonda Siciliano, a spokeswoman for HUD, said Wednesday that the Foster Youth to...
Blog Post
New Intervention Fact Sheet: Parent-Child Care [nctsn.org]
A 7-page fact sheet describing Parent-Child Care (PC-CARE) is now available. A dyadic psychotherapeutic intervention for enhancing the caregiver-child relationship and making behavior management more effective, PC-CARE combines teaching and coaching on how trauma exposure affects children’s mental health. Caregivers can be biological parents, relative caregivers, resource parents, grandparents, nannies, or anyone caring for a child. While caregivers play with the child, therapists coach...
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 Resource! Secondary Traumatic Stress in Child Welfare Practice: Trauma-Informed Guidelines for Organizations
The Chadwick Center for Children & Families at Rady Children's Hospital San Diego has just released a set of trauma-informed guidelines with concrete strategies for approaching secondary traumatic stress (STS). While these guidelines were created for intended use within child welfare systems, they may be easily adapted into other child-and family-serving organizations. These guidelines were created as part of the Chadwick Trauma-Informed Systems Dissemination and Implementation Project...
Blog Post
New Study on Child Welfare-Involved Youth in Special Education
Dear Colleagues, Wanted to share my new study out in Exceptional Children . I look at maltreatment patterns & their consequences for child welfare-involved children in special education. Findings can inform how educators support these youth, who are often overlooked. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0014402919870830?journalCode=ecxc If you don't have journal access, feel free to email me for a copy of the study: kagee@ucdavis.edu . Regards, Kevin Kevin A. Gee, Ed.D. Associate...
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 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
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
Office of Children's Mental Health Focuses on Helping Communities Prioritize Children’s Mental Health with New Fact Sheet [children.wi.gov]
From Wisconsin Department of Health Services, May 6, 2020 Ahead of Children's Mental Health Awareness day tomorrow, May 7, Office of Children’s Mental Health Director Linda Hall today announces the publication of a new fact sheet focused on prioritizing children’s mental health in Wisconsin and how our communities can do that. Highlights include: Almost half of high school students in Wisconsin are feeling anxious A child typically experiences symptoms of emotional distress for 11 years...
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
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...