Surprising Findings on Aging Out, Removal Reasons and More
This week we discuss the race between Texas and New York to pass the first “Family Miranda” bill for child welfare investigations, clergy as mandated reporters, and the 28th state to ban juvenile life without parole sentences.
Serita Cox of iFoster joins to discuss some of the most interesting results from the organization’s second annual foster care survey, including some notable responses from current and former foster youth about reunification or adoption
Guest Interview Details
Serita Cox is the co-founder of iFoster, which uses a free platform to ensure that every child growing up outside of their biological home has the resources and opportunities they need to become successful. Before launching iFoster in 2010, Cox spent more than a decade consulting on technology and management in the Bay Area.
The Steady Decline of Youth Incarceration, with Melissa Sickmund
On this week’s episode, Melissa Sickmund, director of the National Center for Juvenile Justice, joins us to dive into the decades-long plummeting of youth arrests and incarceration, juvenile justice in the age of Covid-19, data blind spots and more.
Guest Interview Details
Dr. Melissa Sickmund joined the National Center for Juvenile Justice in 1986 and has been at its helm since 2012
On this week’s episode, we discuss a scary error in California’s abuse registry process, more on state efforts to end gender-affirming care for youth, Louisiana’s “Lower the Age” bill and a new ombuds office for youth in foster care in Ohio.
Guest Interview Details
Serita Cox of iFoster joins to talk about how an email her organization sent to partners about what the Biden administration should prioritize in child welfare may have planted the seed for an annual nationwide survey about foster care.
Reading Room
California’s Child Abuse Registry is Missing Upwards of 22,000 Abuse Suspects, Audit Finds
https://bit.ly/3NRv4hRTexas Resumes Investigations into Parents of Trans Children, Families’ Lawyers Confirm
https://bit.ly/3lLCS8RDeSantis Moves to Ban Transition Care for Transgender Youths, Medicaid Recipients
https://nbcnews.to/3GSTpkZIn New Orleans, City Officials Are No Longer Holding Juveniles in the Adult Jail. A Proposed State Law May Force Them To
https://bit.ly/3Q3YYRZHonoring the Life of Ma’Khia Bryant: An Ombudsperson for Foster Youth in Ohio
https://bit.ly/3v153pPOhio Youth and Family Ombudsmen Office Opens
https://bit.ly/3NBIS0lGovernor Appoints Two Ombudsmen to Lead New Office
https://bit.ly/396YKswSurvey Shows Frustration with Foster Care from Within The System
https://bit.ly/3MkmSp2Voice of the Foster Care Community
https://voiceoffostercare.org/Year 2 Survey for Voice of the Foster Care Community
https://bit.ly/3NPtBbI
New Numbers on Broken Adoption and Child Maltreatment Registries
On this week’s podcast we discuss the recent series and data reporting by USA Today on youth who experience adoption from foster care and return to the system, the recent federal investigation on America’s use of Indian boarding schools; and news on lawsuits in Alaska and Indiana.
Guest Interview Details
Buzzfeed reporter Scott Pham joins to discuss his data reporting work on state-rund child abuse and neglect registries, which led him to conservatively estimate that 3 million people are currently on them.
Reading Room
Free registration! Tough Conversations: Navigating Relationships with Biological Family
Sponsored by iFoster
https://bit.ly/3NLFWxRFor tens of thousands of children in the U.S., their “forever family” doesn’t last long. USA TODAY investigates: Why do adoptions fail?
https://bit.ly/3sPivePBill Aims to Prevent Adoptive Parents from Abusing Subsidy Program
https://bit.ly/39KP0nBChild Welfare Ideas from the Experts, #10: Better Policing of Adoption Subsidies
https://bit.ly/3MCkdrHTime for New Numbers on Adoption Disruption
https://bit.ly/3wA5tE8A First, But Incomplete, Measure of Adoption Success
https://bit.ly/38V0PnjThe U.S. Government Releases Landmark Investigation Into the Brutal Legacy of Indian Boarding Schools
https://bit.ly/3sPBgyVFollowing Landmark Report on Indian Boarding Schools, Survivors Call on Congress for Broader Inquiry
https://bit.ly/3Pcrro2Lawsuit Alleges End to End Failures in Alaska’s Child Welfare System
https://bit.ly/3Gnd9NDFirm Files Lawsuit Against Indiana’s Child Welfare System
https://bit.ly/3wEBJFe7th Circuit Dismisses 2019 Lawsuit Seeking Sweeping Changes to Indiana DCS Policies
https://bit.ly/3PAgfSrJudges Toss Class Actions Against Ohio, West Virginia
https://bit.ly/3ii6lpS“It’s Like A Leech On Me”: Child Abuse Registries Punish Unsuspecting Parents Of Color
https://bit.ly/3G5YmGQ
Why Isn’t Community College Working for So Many Foster Youth?
On this week’s podcast we discuss the final numbers on the enhanced child tax credit that ran from July to December; host home respite care comes to New York after a two-year standoff; and an audit suggests what might really be behind Montana’s very high use of foster care.
Guest Interview Details
Amy Dworsky of Chapin Hall and Judy Havlicek of the University of Illinois join to discuss some dismal new findings about community college completion among youth who aged out of foster care. And, current community college student Matt Schaad talks about his own path towards a degree.
Reading Room
Sixth Child Tax Credit Payment Kept 3.7 Million Children Out of Poverty in December
https://bit.ly/3tRWcX6
New York Allows Overnight Respite Care For Children, Despite “Shadow Foster Care” Concerns
https://bit.ly/3qry8Z2
Faith-Based Movement to ‘Host’ Children of Struggling Families Hits Opposition in New York
https://bit.ly/33As1Fa
Report Finds Problems with Foster Child Program, Including Missing Protection and Safety Plans
https://bit.ly/3fQc30f
Kids in Care: Analysis of Population Trends and Management Processes in Montana’s Foster Care System
https://bit.ly/33LKSkF
Chapin Hall Study Finds Lack of Support for Foster Youth in Community College
https://bit.ly/33vUpMt
Chapin Hall Research Brief
https://bit.ly/32q84o7
On this week’s podcast we discuss a foster care capacity crisis in Texas, promising programs and bad facilities in Los Angeles, and former foster youth getting positions of leadership in federal government.
Guest Interview Details
In the early 2010s, Chicago’s juvenile detention center got a much-needed physical overhaul. Its leadership at the time used the opportunity to set up a gold-standard trial to test a new approach to engaging the youth inside. Juvenile detention expert David Roush joins us to talk about what they found and what’s happened since.
Reading Room
Healers in The System: From the Health Field to Child Welfare Leadership
Register for free! Tomorrow, Sept. 21, 4pm EST
(can’t make it? Sign up and receive the recording!)
https://imprintnews.org/webinarsVirtual Town Hall on Pandemic Assistance for Foster Youth
TODAY at 4pm EST
https://thinkofus.typeform.com/to/hUC75vWwMore Texas Foster Youth Are Sleeping in State Offices Than at Any Other Point in Recent Years
https://bit.ly/3hIQL5RTexas Foster Care Children Exposed to Sexual Abuse, Given Wrong Medication and Neglected in Unlicensed Placements, New Report Says
https://bit.ly/39jqc2LLos Angeles County Supervisors Approve Therapeutic Approaches to Youth Detention
https://bit.ly/3AiTHgTState Agency Declares L.A.’s Juvenile Halls ‘Unsuitable for Confinement of Minors’
https://bit.ly/3CoEcVdFoster Youth Advocate Joins Biden Administration’s Child Welfare Agency Leadership
https://bit.ly/39c0DR7Child Welfare Policymakers Need to Learn User Centered Design
https://bit.ly/3kn5mG7Young Adult Consultant and Youth Support Leads Application
www.bit.ly/ICFYAC2021
Supports, Not Just Services: Talking Child Welfare Response with Chapin Hall’s Bryan Samuels
On this week’s podcast we discuss the recent dismissal of lawsuits in Ohio and West Virginia, new research on the prevalence of child protection investigations, and a local investigation into “hidden foster care” that might make waves.
Guest Interview Details
Bryan Samuels, executive director of Chapin Hall, joins us to discuss the Family First Act, race and poverty, congregate care and his organization’s new policy brief on including more concrete and economic supports in child welfare.
Reading Room
Judges Toss Class Actions Against Ohio, West Virginia
https://bit.ly/3ii6lpSNearly Half of Children Experience CPS Investigations For Abuse And Neglect Before 18, New Estimates For Large Counties Show
https://bit.ly/2TSQzsjContact with Child Protective Services Is Pervasive but Unequally Distributed by Race and Ethnicity in Large US Counties
https://bit.ly/3A12W4ONC County Illegally Removed Kids from Homes
https://bit.ly/3ilWMq8Key Supervisor Pleads guilty in DSS Family Separation Scheme
https://bit.ly/3ynnxQxAddressing Economic Hardship Key to Preventing Child Welfare System Involvement
https://bit.ly/3ighQgo
Are There Way More Kids in Foster Care Than We Think?
On this week’s podcast we discuss more plans for rethinking child welfare, universal cell phone coverage for California foster youth, and another big experiment planned for the “colorblind” approach to foster care removal decisions.
Guest Interview Details
Josh Gupta-Kagan of the University of South Carolina School of Law joins to discuss “hidden foster care,” the practice of informally moving children out of their homes without the involvement of the courts. Gupta-Kagan’s research on this practice suggests that potentially hundreds of thousands more kids enter foster care every year than we think.
On this week’s podcast we discuss the end of the federal eviction moratorium, a string of new laws aimed at protecting parents suspected of abuse or neglect in New York, and Molly Dunn joins to talk about problems with Arizona’s effort to get federal assistance to current and former foster youth.
Guest Interview Details
Lindsey Bullinger of Georgia Tech University joins us for a conversation about how changes in the minimum wage can impact abuse and neglect, how to research the impact of the new child allowance, and what she and colleagues found when they matched up matched up child welfare data with cell phone usage during the early months of the coronavirus pandemic.
On this week’s podcast we discuss the police shooting of an Ohio foster youth, the recent Supreme Court decision on juvenile sentencing, and a novel partnership to connect former foster youth with housing stability.
Guest Interview Details
Robert Latham of the University of Miami’s Children and Youth Law Clinic joins us to discuss several issues at play in Florida, one of America’s largest and most privatized child welfare systems. We talked about Latham’s unprecedented data project tracking the movement of foster youth in the state, a law that often leads to system-involved youth being confined in mental health facilities, and the state’s child welfare response to COVID-19.
Reading Room
Reading RoomPolice Killing of Foster Child Ma’Khia Bryant in Ohio Wrenches Youth, Allies
https://bit.ly/3vdTusmOn Juvenile LWOP, Supreme Court Answers One Question and Creates Another
https://bit.ly/3dP3GSoOhio Senate Seeks Ban on Life Without Parole for Juveniles
https://bit.ly/3dNCV0vBen Carson Unveils Major Stable Housing Initiative for Former Foster Youth
https://bit.ly/3odHqUSSupporting Foster Youth on College Campuses
https://bit.ly/2PaX07q
A Deep Dive on Child Maltreatment Statistics
On this week’s podcast, we share some thoughts on the earlygoing on child welfare and juvenile justice for the Biden Administration: initial actions, key hires, and the Family First Act.
BONUS: This episode features music from the Unsung program, which helps youth in juvenile settings learn to perform, record and produce songs.
Guest Interview Details
David Finkelhor of the Crimes Against Children Research Center and Family Research Laboratory joins to discuss the most recent federal data on child abuse and neglect, and what it showed as America headed into the coronavirus pandemic.
Measuring Family Separation, and the Biden Child Welfare Agenda
On this week’s podcast we provide an overview of the Who Cares project, The Imprint’s annual data collection on foster youth and foster homes in America. We also discuss some local and state election results, and what’s going on with the Biden transition team.
Guest Interview Details
We’re joined by Melissa Carter, executive director of the Barton Child Law and Policy Center at Emory University, and Andy Barclay, statistician for the group Fostering Court Improvement, to discuss a new metric to track family separation in America. Imprint columnist Vivek Sankaran joins to discuss what he hopes a Biden-Harris child welfare policy will look like.
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