April 9, 2015
Nobody likes to think about it. The mere thought of child abuse and its prevalence makes us cringe. Yet abuse and neglect are all around and often invisible to the outsider. According to the Kids Count Data Center, Alaska's rate of abuse and neglect is consistently among the highest in the nation.
April 9, 2015
Lansing, Mich. April 9, 2015 - Throughout April, Michiganders are learning more about the various ways people and communities throughout the state are working to help protect children from abuse and neglect. One effective way Michigan taxpayers can help is by remembering the Children's Trust Fund of Michigan (CTF).
April 2, 2015
A new report released Thursday detailed additional problems at the state's troubled Department of Children and Family Services that could "result in further endangerment" of the children the agency is charged with protecting.
March 31, 2015
WASHINGTON - Two and a half years ago, Jazmin Favela ran away from a troubled home life. She took off without a change of clothes, crashing wherever she could. When her picture started showing up on “missing” posters in her California town, she figured she'd better turn herself in. And that, she said, is how she entered the foster care system.
March 25, 2015
AUSTIN -- Saying he was "deeply concerned" about recent deaths of children under state supervision, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday ordered Child Protective Services to improve the screening of caregivers who temporarily take in kids whose parents are being investigated for child abuse or neglect.
March 26, 2015
A study led by Cathy Spatz Widom, Distinguished Professor of Psychology at John Jay College, found that offspring of parents with histories of child abuse and neglect are themselves at risk for childhood neglect and sexual abuse but not physical abuse. Titled "Intergenerational Transmission of Child Abuse and Neglect: Real or Detection Bias?" the study's findings were reported in the March 27 issue of the journal Science.
March 19 2015
A plan to make Colorado's child ombudsman independent from the state child welfare department has vast support — except from the child welfare officials who are the targets of the agency's investigations.
March 16, 2015
A California-based policy shop is asking for a $30 million expansion of the state's transitional housing program to serve homeless youth and older foster youth with extra challenges.
March 9, 2015
MENLO PARK, Calif., March 9, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- A new report on foster youth and California's Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) finds that most school districts are just beginning to grapple with how to address the needs of foster youth, despite the fact that foster youth have the lowest educational and life outcomes of any student group. SRI Education and J. Koppich and Associates conducted the research and produced the report, Foster Youth and the Early Implementation of the LCFF: Not Yet Making the Grade, on behalf of the National Center for Youth Law. It revealed serious gaps between the state's intent to highlight foster youth as a target group and the state's, counties', and districts' systems of support for this particularly under-performing group of students.
March 6, 2015
If you are a child in foster care, things are probably not going your way. You're not living with your parents, and a state agency is in charge of you. You're probably very poor, and maybe you are disabled. You sure don't look like a funding bonanza for your state, but guess what, you might be! An op-ed by University of Baltimore law professor Daniel Hatcher in the Baltimore Sun this week points out that some states, including Maryland, are using private contractors to take foster kids' Social Security (SSI) benefits as a way to make some extra bucks. Well that is just about the worst thing we've ever heard. Let's theft-splore.