Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and Senator Rob Portman (R-OH) introduced the Helping Foster and Homeless Youth Achieve Act last Thursday, December 9, 2021. CWLA has endorsed the legislation. The bipartisan legislation seeks to improve access to educational opportunities by requiring that higher education institutions receiving federal assistance waive application fees for young people who are
On December 1, 2021, ProPublica and The New York Times Magazine published an article titled, ‘They Took Us Away From Each Other’: Lost Inside America’s Shadow Foster System” by reporter Lizzie Presser. The article details what some have labeled diversion from foster care by using informal kinship care placements. It doesn’t question kinship care, but
November 29, 2021 New AFCARS data indicates foster care number down, but a closer examination may suggest a pandemic impact on entries and exits. The new AFCARS report was released last week, and it shows a significant decrease in foster care placements decreasing from the 2019 figure of 426,566 children in care to 407, 493
On Thursday, November 18, 2021, the President nominated Rebecca Jones Gaston to become the Commissioner for the Administration on Children Youth and Families (ACYF). The position has been vacant since Elizabeth Darling stepped down during the presidential transition. Currently Gaston is the Child Welfare Director for the State of Oregon’s Department of Human Services. Before
Data released by to CDC on Wednesday, November 17, 2021, confirmed earlier reports that drug overdoses continued to skyrocket with the country reaching 100,000 for the first time in U.S. history. The data measures overdose deaths from May 1, 2020, through April 30, 2021, a big heart of the pandemic. The total is even more
On Thursday, November 18, 2021, HHS announced it was rolling back a controversial Trump Administration waiver that allowed some child welfare agencies to discriminate in their placement decisions. The Biden action quickly gained the praise of key House Democrats who are backing the anti-discrimination-in-placement-decisions legislation. Early in the Trump Administration, HHS had issued a waiver
In celebration of National Adoption Month, Voice for Adoption (VFA) hosted its 17th annual Adoptive Family Portrait Project on November 10th, 2021. This year's theme: 2021: Unresolved ACES - Access to mental health services and impacts it has on permanency. With a special thanks to VFA Communications Policy Associate intern, Derya Ozcan, and in collaboration
On Monday, November 1, 2021, the Child Welfare League of America submitted its recommendations to the Senate Finance Committee on how the Committee and country can make critical changes to the nation’s mental health and substance use treatment systems. The Committee had asked the behavioral health community and other parties to submit recommendation to the
On Thursday, November 4, 2021, Congresswoman Karen Bass (D-CA) introduced 21st Century Children and Families Act (HR 5856). The bill bans discrimination in placement and recruitment of foster and adoptive parents and places added emphasis on kinship care. It requires states to substantiate with clear and convincing data and analysis that the child welfare agency
Last Tuesday, October 26, 2021, Congressman Danny Davis (D-IL) and Congresswoman Jackie Walorski (R-IN) introduced a new bill (HR 5661) to extend the temporary relief for youth exiting foster care. On Wednesday it passed the House by a fast-track voice vote. The December 2020 Covid-19 relief package included flexibility in certain programmatic services for Chafee-eligible