On Wednesday, November 4, 2020, the Supreme Court considered the Sharonell Fulton et al. v City of Philadelphia. A case involving a local Catholic Charities agency claiming that the city of Philadelphia is unfairly targeting them due to the city's non-discrimination policy regarding child welfare placements and recruitments. In 2018 a report in the
On Thursday, November 5, 2020, the National Center for Housing & Child Welfare (NCHCW) hosted a webinar titled "At Home with FYI: A Conversation with Child Welfare Partners" that discussed HUD's Foster Youth Independence (FYI) Initiative and its implementation. Since FYI was established in July 2019, nearly 1,000 youth have accessed safe, decent, affordable housing in 91
Thousands of teenagers across the country are at risk of aging out of the foster care system without permanent families or a sense of belonging. Often youth themselves are reluctant to consider adoption or other permanency because of trauma they’ve experienced, conflicting loyalties to family and caregivers, or fear of lost identity. Yet studies show lifelong connection
November is National Runaway Prevention Month, which brings awareness and extends prevention measures to the many youth who runaway every year. This month is also an opportunity to spotlight the available resources for runaway youth who find themselves in crisis. During the month of November, individuals, organizations, and communities across the nation are encouraged to
Last month, Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago released a report titled "Challenges & Opportunities in Addressing Rural Youth Homelessness," containing a qualitative study building on an earlier brief conducted in 2018. According to the report, this study "builds on the findings from the earlier brief to explore the unique challenges that rural communities
According to a new report by the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute, the number of uninsured children grew by 320,000 in 2019 to a total of 4.4 million children. The report, Children’s Uninsured Rate Rises by Largest Annual Jump in More Than a Decade, finds that since the start of the Trump Administration, 726,000 children have
The United Hospital Fund collaborated with Boston Consulting Group on the new report, COVID-19 Ripple Effect: The Impact of COVID-19 on Children in New York State, that showed that 4,200 children in New York State have lost a parent to COVID-19 between March and July of this year. In addition, 325,000 children were pushed into or
In response to the CDC’s 2019 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance (YRBS) data released in August 2020, “the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) foundation analyzed the data and found that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) youth are living in a state of crisis.” The HRC’s Project THRIVE aims to build the knowledge, skills, and capacities
On Wednesday, October 14, SchoolHouse Connection hosted a Congressional briefing titled “Educating Homeless Children and Youth During COVID-19”. The briefing included several panelists, including Congressmen Jimmy Panetta (D-CA) and Don Bacon (R-NE). The bipartisan Congressional briefing also featured four local educational agency homeless liaisons experts, John Bright from Omaha Public Schools in Nebraska, Ayesha Buckner
On Tuesday, October 6, HUD’s Secretary Ben Carson issued a notice expanding the Foster Youth to Independence (FYI) program to reach more youth aging out of foster care. The FYI program is an initiative of HUD that expanded and enhanced the existing Family Unification Program (FUP) to reach more youth leaving foster care. Both FUP