Last Week

Last Week in Child Welfare: April 8-April 15

by Elizabeth Gibbons The U.S. Public School System's Failing Grades The last seven Secretaries of Education recently convened to assess the country’s K-12 and higher education systems to determine how schools need to adapt to prepare students for a changing world. This convening was held on the 35th anniversary of the 1983 report “A Nation at

Last Week in Child Welfare: April 1-April 8

by Elizabeth Gibbons Public Schools  Over the past two weeks, teachers across the country have been walking out, striking, and demanding livable wages, better resources, and increased public school funding. The most publicized stories have come from West Virginia and Oklahoma, where protests and mass school closures have yielded positive results: a 5% pay increase

Last Week in Child Welfare: March 25-April 1

by Elizabeth Gibbons Ohio Mahoning County Children Services, in Ohio, is training its caseworkers to identify and respond to human trafficking. The training, led by Columbus police, was developed in 2003 to raise consciousness of the crimes and educate criminal justice and social service professionals, those with the most exposure to victims, in appropriate responses. Most

Last Week in Child Welfare: March 18-March 25

by Elizabeth Gibbons March For Our Lives On Saturday, March 24, one of the largest protests in American history took place outside of the Capitol Building in Washington, DC. Reminiscent of the students marching against the Vietnam War, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to exclaim “Never Again”!  The largest demonstration—upwards of 850,000

Last Week in Child Welfare: March 11-March 18

by Elizabeth Gibbons Elizabeth Darling Nomination President Donald Trump has nominated the president and chief executive of the Texas-based OneStar Foundation, Elizabeth Darling, to be the new commissioner of the Administration on Children, Youth, and Families within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It could take weeks or months for a nominee to be

Last Week in Child Welfare: March 4-March 11

by Elizabeth Gibbons Oklahoma In a recent State News update, we talked about Georgia’s bill to allow faith-based adoption agencies to discriminate against couples who are LGBTQ. The Oklahoma State Senate is now hearing a very similar bill. Advocates for foster youth in Oklahoma have reported that the state Senate will take up a bill

Last Week in Child Welfare: February 25-March 4

by Elizabeth Gibbons Georgia A bill in the Georgia State Legislature, which would enable foster and adoption agencies to refuse potential foster and adoptive parents on the basis of religious beliefs, is drawing national controversy over its religious and discriminatory language. The Human Rights Campaign and other  groups have raised concerns that this bill will

Last Week in Child Welfare: February 18-February 25

by Elizabeth Gibbons Oregon In our Last Week In Child Welfare, February 4-11, we discussed the recent audit of Oregon’s child welfare department that showed the state had not made any significant improvements or reforms, despite the knowledge that their system was ineffective and jeopardized the health and safety of the children in their care. On

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