Lazy days of summer
....child welfare news for June 4, 2024
After a short break to celebrate Memorial Day and the beginning of the summer, we’re back with the latest developments in child welfare.
I’m really intrigued with the SOUL Family permanency option, which Kansas has just enacted into law. It allows youth 16 and over in foster care to agree to an arrangement with a family that is permanent but also retains the benefits of foster care. I’d love to hear from any of y’all in Kansas as to how this plays out.
Lots going on in West Virginia’s child welfare system lately. Former officials are raising transparency concerns. The state’s child welfare ombudsman resigned, apparently headed for greener pastures. While those two items may not be related, this editorial raises the importance of ensuring the ombudsman is free to do his or her job without interference.
New Hampshire’s legislature is debating whether the evidentiary bar for demonstrating dependency should be a preponderance of the evidence or clear and convincing evidence.
Florida just expanded its Safe Haven Law, which now will allow parents to abandon children up to 30 days old by voluntarily relinquishing after giving birth at the hospital or by calling 911.
Russians stole 46 children from a foster home in eastern Ukraine.
New Mexico is about to launch a new Medicaid managed-care program that will specifically cover foster children and youth.
The New York Times ran a guest column raising the question of whether our child welfare system properly balances a child’s need for family integrity against a child’s need for safety. It’s a hard balancing act and an issue we should be discussing publicly. There were lots of responses to the editor.
Couple of interesting child welfare cases out of the New Jersey Supreme Court. In the first, the Court unanimously held that when the dependency court dismisses a child protection case at the agency’s request, it may not continue in place any orders restricting the parent’s access to the child. Dismissing the case while leaving the parent subject to visitation or other restrictions leaves the parent without access to the court or court-appointed counsel. In the second case, the mother left the child at the hospital and gave the social workers incorrect contact information. When they finally tracked her down and brought her to court for the dependency case, the court ruled that she had neglected the child. While the mother argued that the New Jersey Safe Haven law should apply, the Supreme Court instead found that because the mother had left the child in the care and safety of the hospital, there was no neglect. Hmmm.
Maine’s Supreme Court also decided an important child welfare case recently. In Barni A., the Court dealt with a mother whose parental rights were terminated to her child, who had severe medical needs. The Court found that although Maine’s Medicaid agency should have ensured the mother received intensive in-home assistance to meet those needs, no one at the State ever bothered to arrange for those services. The case is a reminder that before the State terminates a parent’s rights, it’s first got to provide the parent with the assistance necessary to care for a child.
Georgia DFCS is rolling out an app designed to improve communication among case managers, family, foster parents, and CASAs.
Connecticut is struggling to serve children with severe mental health needs.
I’m off on vacation the next two weeks, but I’ll try to post! Thanks for reading, sharing, and subscribing!