Catching you up on the latest news:
Kaiser reports on a new 1115 Medicaid waiver of the program’s “inmate exclusion” to provide medical coverage to qualifying incarcerated individuals prior to their release. Important to us is the provision that" “all inmates of youth correctional facilities will be eligible for services 90 days pre-release, without meeting any clinical criteria.” The article discusses 15 other states that have similar requests pending with CMS.
The Boston Globe reports on children who are stuck in hospitals because the state’s Department of Children and Families has no place to put them.
The New Jersey Comptroller’s Office released a report criticizing the state child protection agency’s response to allegations of child sex abuse beginning around the start of the pandemic. “The change was made without notifying law enforcement or other community-based child protection professionals in mental health, victim advocacy, and substance abuse treatment who are tasked by law with responding to and preventing child abuse, investigators found.”
A Washington legislator has proposed providing “pre-petition counsel” to parents involved with the child welfare system. While the article labels this bill as a “first of its kind,” this sort of representation has been increasing nationwide, as the NCJFCJ has noted.
Last year, the Nebraska legislature de-privatized some of its child welfare functions. This week, a governmental working group aimed at reforming the child welfare practice and financing system met for the first time.
Leaders in North Carolina are looking for ways to resolve the state’s mental health crisis, including by possibly expanding Medicaid.
In Texas, new Department of Family and Protective Services Secretary Stephanie Muth is talking about expanding the state’s privatized “community-based care” system.
Speaking of Texas, there’s an interesting article in the Texas Tribune regarding federal judge Janis Jack’s takeover of the state’s child welfare system. “`When you look at how micromanaged a lot of this is, and how much time, energy and resources are spent, I feel like [Judge Jack] is as much the commissioner of the agency as the commissioner is and has been for a while,’ said state Rep. James Frank, R-Wichita Falls.” Since 2015, the state has paid the required federal court monitors over $41 million.
City Journal has a report on child deaths in Minnesota.
Finally, in Colorado, as has occurred in other states, legislators and other policy leaders are concerned about due process regarding the state’s child abuse registry.