Last week, the National Foster Care Youth & Alumni Policy Council hosted a webinar to highlight the policy recommendations outlined in their new document, A Historic Opportunity to Reform the Child Welfare System: Youth & Alumni Priorities on Preventing Unnecessary Removal of Children from Families. The webinar featured members from the Policy Council Justin Abbasi
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) latest report on “Foster Care: Education Could Help States Improve Educational Stability for Youth in Foster Care,” examined the implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) provisions related to the educational stability of youth in foster care. ESSA requirements as it relates to improving educational stability for youth in
On October 16, 2019, the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute (CCAI) and Kidsave presented a special screening of the A&E documentary series “The Day I Picked My Parents.” NBC-4 veteran reporter and creator of the Wednesday’s Child program, Barbara Harrison, opened up the briefing discussing the role that the Freddie Mac Foundation had on helping
This week the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a new report, Death Rates Due to Suicide and Homicide Among Persons Aged 10–24: United States, 2000–2017. Among children and youth ages, 10 to 24 years old suicides climbed 56% between 2007 and 2017. Perhaps what is even worse is that the suicide rate
On Monday, October 7, 2019, the groups that headed up the Supreme Court amicus brief in support of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), released a press statement describing both the reasons for the action and resources that advocates can use. CWLA was one of more than thirty groups signing on in support of
On October 10, 2019, The Chronicle of Social Change, released its third annual analysis of the nation’s foster care housing crisis. Through the collection and analysis of state data and federal reporting, this year’s findings aim to address two critical questions: 1. How many children and youth are in foster care today? 2. Where and
The Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) is the only federal law that protects children and youth in the justice system and address prevention services for at-risk youth. JJDPA was passed in 1974 and most recently reauthorized in 2018. In 1980, Congress added the valid court order (VCO) exception to the Deinstitutionalization of Status
On Thursday, October 10, the Health Affairs Journal held a briefing on Violence & Health with 15 authors from their October 2019 Issue that discussed their work focusing on how violence permeates our society with consequences for victims, perpetrators, and communities. The various aspects of violence and its impacts reaches people of all ages and
On Friday, October 4, 2019, more than 30 national groups submitted an amicus brief in support of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and in opposition to the Trump Administration’s attempt to repeal the original executive order. In June of this year, the Supreme Court announced that it would take up a legal challenge
The American Bar Association’s (ABA) Center on Children and the Law recently released its Youth in Court toolkit. The toolkit provides a basic framework of adolescent brain science, a legal overview of laws relating to youth engagement in case planning and court hearings, and tips for attorneys and judges to engage youth and support their