While a Senate bipartisan bill to reauthorize the Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) has been held up in the Senate by Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR), the House of Representatives approved a bipartisan bill last Thursday on H.R. 5963, the Supporting Youth Opportunity and Preventing Delinquency Act of 2016. The bill was voted out of
The best news regarding the passage of the Family First Prevention Services Act, (HR 5456, Conference Report 114-628) is that Congress did not get a budget deal and adjourn last week giving supporters and opponents at least one more week to find a path forward. Behind the scenes discussions have continued but it is unclear
The House has scheduled a vote for Tuesday on H.R. 5963, the Supporting Youth Opportunity and Preventing Delinquency Act of 2016, a bill that would reauthorize the Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA). The bill was voted out of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce last Wednesday, September 14. If the JJDPA is
On Monday, September 12, groups including First Focus, the Children’s Advocacy Institute, the National Association of Counsel for Children, and the American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law conducted a briefing on the need for greater and required legal protection for children across a number of legal systems. The focus of the briefing
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued a new report on how tribal governments are addressing the eventual restrictions on the foster care placement category of “another planned permanent living arrangement” or APPLA for youth in foster care. The report, Most Tribes Do Not Anticipate Challenges with Case Goal Changes, but HHS Could Further Promote
In recent weeks two bills have been introduced that attempt to assist youth in foster care and while the bills are being introduced late in this Congress they set a marker for future action in the next Congress. Last week Congressman Jim McDermott (D-WA) was joined by a group of bipartisan legislators in introducing a
The two Title IV-B programs along with the adoption and kinship incentive fund expire on October 1, 2016 and so they need to be reauthorized either through the Families First Act or or another measure which could include a short term extensions included any CR. A CR however may just extend the program for a
Three organizations have come together to provide a toolkit, SSI for Youth Transitioning Out of Foster Care, that could help test out a new Social Security Administration pilot that seeks to extend SSI benefits to youth exiting foster care. The three groups authoring the report, the Juvenile Law Center, Community Legal Services of Philadelphia, and
CWLA submitted comments to the Department of Education on proposed regulations of the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) before the due date of Monday, August 1. The Proposed regulations, which garnered more than 20,000 comments, implement Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), focused generally on the broader accountability requirements in ESSA but in
On Tuesday, the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute (CCAI) held their annual unveiling of their policy report. The report and the panel of speakers are the result of the 2016 CCAI Foster Youth Internship Program® class. The policy report, Powerful Voices: Sharing Our Stories to Reform Child Welfare includes 22 policy recommendation by the 12