On Wednesday, July 29, 2020, New York U.S. District Judge George Daniels blocked the Trump Administration's new "public charge" immigration restriction. The Judge's ruling was based on how the Administration's new rule prevents some immigrants access to critical COVID-19 services. Public charge is a test applied to immigrants who the government believes will rely
Last week, Arizona provided a directive to foster parents and relative caregivers that when schools reopen, children in foster care should be attending school. The Department has said they will consider some exceptions. The Arizona Department of Child Safety Director Mike Faust said in a public statement that he reached the decision based on consultation
On Tuesday, July 28, 2020, the Trump Administration announced a plan to limit the use of DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. Faced with a rejection by the U.S. Supreme Court to end the program, they are now attempting to restrict it. The Tuesday announcement said they would reject any new applicants and limit
New research from BMJ.Com (British Medical Journal) published in July provided evidence that state policies that limited the sale of handguns to people aged 18 or older (relative to 21 or older) were associated with an increase in the suicide rate among adolescents aged 18 to 20 years of age. The paper, State handgun purchase age
On Friday, July 31, 2020, the House passed HR 7614 a second “mini-bus” legislative package that included six more appropriations bills. Combined with the previous week’s action that moved four appropriations bills, the House of Representatives has passed ten of twelve appropriations bills. Before moving on this legislative package, House leadership removed funding for the Department
As the end of the week approached, Washington was still waiting for a complete initial package from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on what will be a fifth COVID-19 relief measure. Negotiations that had started within the White House on Monday between the President’s staff and Republican Congressional leaders from the House and Senate
Last week the House passed HR 7617 a “mini-bus” legislative package that included funding for four separate appropriations bills. Included in the mini-bus (as opposed to an omnibus bill) were the four appropriations for Agriculture-FDA, Interior-Environment, Military Construction-VA, and the State Department-Foreign Operations. There is a total of 12 annual appropriations bills. This week
On July 20, 2020, the Children’s Bureau released a Child Welfare Policy Manuel (CWPM) that explains some of the more technical questions and approaches to funding legal representation for parents and children by tapping into federal Title IV-E funds. The Frequently Asked Questions: Independent Legal Representation. Over the past three years, the Children’s Bureau has promoted
The Foster Care Research Group at the University of San Francisco released preliminary results of the “Perspectives of Current and Former Foster Youth During COVID-19” that was conducted in May and June 2020. Responses included 127 young adults across the country between the ages of 18-26 assessing the needs, concerns, and strengths before, during, and
On Wednesday, July 22 the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute (CCAI) held the modified 2020 Foster Youth Internship Program congressional briefing webinar. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the twelve current and former foster youth interns (FYI 2020 cohort) spent their summer participating in a virtual internship where they provided policy solution to address four areas
