On Thursday, May 26, the White House capped off May as National Foster Care Month with a two-day “White House and Foster Care and Technology Hackathon.” The event sought to bring together child welfare leaders, organizations, families and foster alumni into a meeting with engineers and leaders from the technology sector. As part of the
The resource kit released by the Education Department follows a report by the GAO earlier this month, Actions Needed to Improve Access to Federal Financial Assistance for Homeless and Foster Youth (GAO-16-343: May 19, 2016) that program rules can make it more difficult for unaccompanied homeless youth (those not in the physical custody of a
From May 22 through May 27 more than 100 young people participated in “Shadow Day,” an event that matches youth in foster care with a member of the House of Representatives. Young people in foster care participate in a number of events, forums and training. The events this year included a viewing and discussion of
On Thursday, May 17 the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) focused on, Preventing Harm to Children through Predictive Analytics. A somewhat formal definition of predictive analytics would define it as a practice of taking data and the information gathered from that data to determine patterns and predict outcomes and trends. It predicts or forecasts what might
On Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee, as part of National Foster Care Month held a hearing, Supporting Youth in the Foster Care and Juvenile Justice Systems. In opening the hearing Chairman Charles Grassley (R-IA) said that he hoped the hearing would result in some new information and strategies to better coordinate services between the child
On Wednesday, May 17, Mathematica, a policy research think tank, hosted a National Foster Care Month briefing, Welfare Through Prevention: An Evidence-Based Perspective. The presentation including remarks by Kimberly Boller, Mathematica, Matthew Stagner, Mathematica, Becky Shipp, (Senator Orrin Hatch, R-UT), and Laura Berntsen, (Senator Ron Wyden, D-OR). Much of the discussion focused on the draft
On Wednesday, May 17 the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Human Resources held their own hearing on the substance-abuse issue and the relationship to child welfare. It follows last week’s Senate Finance Committee hearing on the use of evidence-based services and its relationship to child welfare. In his opening statement, the Chairman, Congressman Vern
The House adopted an amendment offered by Congressman Danny Davis (D-IL) and Congressman Todd Young (R-IN), (and endorsed by CWLA), that will allow Justice Department funded substance abuse treatment diversion grants to focus on parents whose incarceration could result in their children entering foster care. The amendment was considered as part of the House debates
Thursday a Capitol Hill briefing featuring Dr. Phil McGraw became more like a Capitol Hill hearing as he discussed the heroin/opioid use epidemic and its impact on the child welfare. The briefing sponsored by the House Congressional Caucus on Foster Youth, co-chaired by Congressperson Karen Bass (D-CA) and Congressman Tom Marino (R-PA), was open to
On Wednesday, May 11 the Congressional Coalition on Adoptions Institute (CCAI) along with Fostering Media Connections in conjunction with the Senate Caucus on Foster Youth hosted a Capitol Hill briefing, Recruiting Top-notch Caregivers and Foster Parents as a Pathway to Permanency. Panelists included Daniel Heimpel, Fostering Media Connections, Dr. Sharon McDaniel, A Second Chance, Pennsylvania,