State

Family Separation at Border Much Earlier: 60 Minutes

Last Sunday, November 25, the CBS news program, 60 Minutes, reported on children separated at the border. What the 60 Minutes segment revealed was what some critics had suspected; they had been separating children from their families much earlier than 2018. The story also documented through interviews with officials from within the government some of

Children’s Bureau Encourages More Primary Prevention

On November 16, the Children’s Bureau issued ACYF-CB-IM-18-05, a memorandum on primary prevention, and “to strongly encourage all child welfare agencies and Children’s Bureau (CB) grantees to work together with the courts and other appropriate public and private agencies and partners to plan, implement and maintain integrated primary prevention networks and approaches to strengthen families

NACAC, VFA & Center on American Progress Report on LGBTQ Issues

Voice for Adoption (VFA), the North American Council on Adoptable Children (NACAC) and the Center on American Progress have released a new study, Welcoming All Families that analyses discrimination against LGBTQ youth in foster care and discrimination against the recruitment of foster and adoptive parents. The report finds that although same-sex parents are not banned

Annual Report on Child Care Shows First Results of Budget Increase

The National Women’s Law Center has released their new annual report and review on state child care policy, Overdue for Investment. The report found that 33 states improved child care in 2018 compared to 2017 with 19 states backtracking on child care practices. The report is the first to measure the impact of the FY

Ninth Circuit Court Upholds DACA

On Thursday, November 8, the Ninth Circuit Court in California left in place a nationwide injunction keeping the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program alive. The Court, responding to an action led by the California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, found that former President Barack Obama’s creation of the program was a legitimate exercise of

CWLA Submits Comments Opposing Flores Regulation

On Monday, October 29, CWLA submitted comments on the Administration’s proposed regulation that would overturn or supersede the 1997 Flores settlement. On Friday, September 7, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published a federal register notice that proposes, through the regulation process, to amend a court

District Court Ruling Threatens ICWA

On October 4, a ruling by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Brackeen V Zinke, Judge Reed O’Connor ruled that the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) is unconstitutional in its entirety based on the Equal Protection Clause and the 14th Amendment. The judge wrote that ICWA’s racial classification of children has

New Survey Shows Decreased Supply of Foster Homes

A new survey by the Chronical of Social Change indicates that the number of foster family homes may be declining while the number of relative homes is up. According to the second such yearly survey the publication found that at least 15 states lost foster homes between 2017 to 2018 with five states experiencing a

Low Wage Workers and the Role of Anti-Poverty Programs

Shaquita Ogleetree On October 15, the Hamilton Project, the Brookings Institution and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities co-hosted a forum to explore work requirements and the role of anti-poverty programs. The Hamilton Project released its economic analysis report on how work requirements in Medicaid and SNAP affect the goals of a social safety

New Report Grades States on Access to Mental Health

On Wednesday, October 3, a new report was released, Evaluating State Mental Health and Addiction Parity Statutes: A Technical Report, ranking the fifty states A through F on whether or not they are providing parity access to mental health and substance abuse treatment consistent with the federal law. That law generally requires health insurers to

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