Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and a good tryptophan-induced nap! A day late and a dollar short, it’s your latest update on happenings in the world of child welfare.
Hot off the presses, the Georgia Senate Foster Care and Adoption study committee this morning voted on making legislative and budget recommendations to improve the state’s child welfare system. Although the final report is not yet published, the recommendations include:
Adopting legislation to shorten the time to permanency, either via reunification or adoption;
Ensuring children and youth in foster care have photo IDs;
Increasing pay for DFCS case managers, increasing monthly adoption assistance, and making mental-health services available to foster and adoptive parents.
Tomorrow is Giving Tuesday. If you’d like to support a nonprofit organization that will be down at the Georgia Capitol this coming session promoting these and other reforms, please consider supporting Fostering Impact.
In other news:
I always appreciate when journalists learn that they (should) have access to child protective services records involving children who suffered an abusive death or near fatality. Congrats to this reporter for sharing his battle with the system to get the records.
This ProPublica investigation is concerning. It alleges that NYC’s child protective services got police to help them enter a family’s home without a warrant, among other injustices. Our CPS agencies need to understand that the Fourth Amendment’s bar against warrantless searches applies to child welfare agencies just as it applies to law enforcement.
More pushback on the US Senate subcommittee’s investigation of Georgia’s foster care system.
I’m surprised and saddened to hear that Embrace Families has ended its contract with Florida’s DCF. The organization has long served the Orlando area as the “lead” child welfare agency. It appears finances became a significant issue.
Like other states, Idaho and Oregon are struggling to care for children and youth with significant behavioral issues within its foster care system and have resorted to placing some children in short-term rentals.
The Economist reports that Georgia’s law recognizing rights of unborn children may be leading to physicians taking extraordinary measures to resuscitate unborn children who would otherwise not be considered viable.
An editorial in the Akron, Ohio Beacon-Journal calls into question Ohio’s 1990s-era laws mandating adult treatment of serious juvenile offenders. It appears the state’s officials are considering reforms.
Here’s an article about the danger to foster youth of being lured into human trafficking.
In Virginia, there’s a renewed focus on placing children in state custody with relatives in kinship care.
In the wake of negative news coverage, Minnesota officials are working to improve child protection in the state.
After Texas set the barrier higher for a CPS removal, some are questioning whether the change is negatively affecting child safety.
Although it appears the National CASA program’s financial management has drawn some scrutiny, I’m happy to report that none of that drama affects the state-level programs. Georgia CASA, for example, receives less than 1% of its funding from the national organization.
Thanks for reading!