On Wednesday, April 22, CWLA hosted the webinar, Pandemic Shines Light on Needs of Older Youth Involved with Child Welfare. Victoria Kelly, CWLA board member, and Professor Cassandra Simmel from Rutgers’s School of Social Work moderated the panel. Panelists included Professor Laura Abrams from UCLA, Grace Hillard-Koshinsky from New England Association of Child Welfare Commissioner
On Friday, April 17, 2020, Associate Commissioner Jerry Milner highlighted the challenges surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic and the health and human services systems inability to conduct services in the traditional approach. Milner’s letter to child welfare leaders urges them to collaborate with their governors and “to work with their emergency management and public health leadership
The three most significant legislative actions in terms of this nation’s history of child welfare policy have one thing in common: they were all followed by three of the worst recessions in the past half-century. The Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act (PL 96-272), passed on June 17, 1980. It created Title IV-E of the
All parts of the child welfare continuum—child and family serving organizations, social workers, parents, kinship caregivers, adoptive or foster parents, and children themselves—have been fundamentally impacted by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Several CWLA Press titles speak to managing stress and crisis situations; empowering children, youth, and those in the child welfare field; and maintaining safety
While CWLA applauds Congress for the efforts made to contain the spread and impact of the pandemic, more aid is needed to protect children and families most at risk during this time and address the emerging needs of states and localities. Over the last month, CWLA has emphasized the real experiences that child welfare agencies
On Friday, April 17, 2020, the Children’s Bureau released a letter to the child welfare field on allowable use of funds during the national emergency for the purchase of cell phones and other tools to facilitate or maintain contact with children and youth in foster care and their parents and the purchase of personal protective
On Wednesday, April 15, 2020, the Children Bureau provided flexibility for federal requirements regarding the criminal background checks and monthly caseworker visits in the child’s residence due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the letter, Milner stated: “In light of the extraordinary circumstances related to the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) pandemic and nationwide public health emergency, we
On Tuesday, April 14, 2020, the Children’s Bureau released new guidance highlighting and strongly encouraging court leaders to engage Court Improvement Programs (CIPs) in assisting dependency courts to respond to Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). Associate Commissioner Jerry Milner instructed Chief Justices and State Court Administrators to “work closely with the CIP in your state or
Congressman Danny Davis (D-IL) updated the guide for kinship caregivers on COVID-19 stimulus payments last week with several updates from the IRS with important updates including: • “Certain kinship caregivers may need to quickly give the IRS information about their children in order to get stimulus payments for children in 2020; once payments are sent,
The New York Times piece discusses how poverty is likely to rise disproportionately for children due to the COVID-19 outbreak and the resulting economic downturn. This pandemic threatens families with children who will be hit the greatest as their expenses increase, but their income does not. With child poverty in the US already at 13