On January 22, Senate Finance Committee Chair, Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) sent a letter to the head of the United States Olympic Committee, Sarah Hirshland asking what actions the Committee has taken to prevent future instances of sexual abuse of Olympic athletes. The letter is a follow up to last year’s congressional action in response
This week CWLA reached out to the more than 100 new members of the 116th Congress with a child welfare background package of information including Investing in All of Child Welfare. This piece argues for investing in ALL of child welfare services: Child welfare’s continuum of care includes prevention of child abuse before it happens
Tessa Buttram and Kylie Hunter On Thursday, January 17, 2019, the Center for Native American Youth at the Aspen Institute held a forum on Youth-Led Organizing and Civic Engagement in the Outdoors. The Fresh Tracks program convened leaders to share their experience using the outdoors as a platform to build leadership skills, learn about and
Last week the Brookings Institution hosted a convening of the CHAMPS campaign to discuss strategies to increase the number of foster families across the country. CHAMPS is a project funded by several foundations led by Annie E Casey. The effort is intended as a national campaign to increase the number of foster parents through state
On Thursday, January 17, 2019, the chairs of Congressional Caucus on Foster Youth held a welcome back event with the staff on Capitol Hill and advocates to discuss issues affecting youth in the child welfare system. The National Foster Youth Institute (NFYI) shared the success of 2018 work and efforts planned for 2019 with the
This past December, Child Trends released a new survey of state child welfare spending based on 2016 state fiscal years. The biennial survey indicates that overall spending in combined federal, state and local child welfare dollars remained somewhat stable from the past survey (based on 2014) with spending up by 5 percent. But over ten
Shaquita Ogletree On Thursday, December 13, Congress passed H.R. 6964, the Juvenile Justice Reform Act of 2018. It has been 16 years since the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974 (JJDPA) was last authorized. JJDPA is the main federal law that strengthens protections for justice-involved youth and improves public safety. Upon final passage
When the Children’s Bureau released their first guidance on services provided through the Family First Act, they also announced two call to provided further information. Those calls will be on Monday, December 17, 2018 from 2:30 – 4:00 PM ET or Tuesday, December 18, 2018 from 12:00-1:30 PM ET. Call-in Information: is: 888-391-9602 with the
Last week the National Runaway Safeline (NRS) released its annual report. The key headline is: “After many years of rapid growth in connections from youth in crisis before a runaway episode, NRS has noticed a shift toward more crisis connections initiated by youth during a runaway episode over the past two years (2016-17). The number
Last Sunday, November 25, the CBS news program, 60 Minutes, reported on children separated at the border. What the 60 Minutes segment revealed was what some critics had suspected; they had been separating children from their families much earlier than 2018. The story also documented through interviews with officials from within the government some of