Parents, advocates tackle issues with Kansas’ foster care system 

Foster care parents and children’s advocates examined ways to address the rapidly growing number of juveniles in Kansas’ troubled foster care system during a forum Monday evening.The event was organized by Strengthen Families Rebuild Hope and took place at the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library.The Department for Children and Families has come under fire […]

Foster care teens can soon ask to reunite with birth parents 

Teenagers in foster care in Virginia will be able to express their preference on restoring their birth parents’ parental rights under a law that will take effect July 1.The General Assembly passed and Gov. Ralph Northam signed legislation allowing foster care children ages 14 and older to tell a judge whether they want their birth […]

More than a statistic – Hardship drove senior Htet Htet Rodgers to success

MORE THAN A STATISTIC Hardship Drove Senior Htet Htet Rodgers To Success Orleans Parish Juvenile Court Judge Ernestine S. Gray and Joy M. Bruce, executive director of CASA New Orleans, co-authored an editorial in 2016 stating that nationally one of the fastest-growing groups of children entering foster care has been those aged 14 to 17. National […]

How We Found More Black Foster Parents and Confronted the Racial Disparity in Foster Care – Youth Today

I’ve worked in child welfare for over eight years and, from day one, I’ve been struck by the high numbers of black children in foster care. As of January 2017, black children were overrepresented in the foster care system by more than double in Washington state, where I work. African-American children in the United States are more […]

Gov. Henry McMaster allows foster care agencies in South Carolina to favor certain religions 

Gov. Henry McMaster is coming to the defense of an Upstate foster care agency that requires participating families to be Christian.McMaster issued an executive order Tuesday that allows foster care providers to discriminate based on religion without losing their license.For nearly three decades, Greenville-based Miracle Hill Ministries has only allowed foster children to be placed […]

Trump’s Immigration Policy Pushing Children Into Foster Care | Juvenile Justice Information Exchange

The struggle to reunite a Congolese woman swept up in an immigration crackdown with her little girl — and to reunite countless families like them — continues, child welfare advocates say. “Ms. L,” as she is identified in court records, was arrested and locked up in San Diego, while her 7-year-old daughter — identified in […]

America’s Foster Care System Is the Pipeline For Child Sex Trafficking

Here’s the ugly truth: most Americans who are victims of sex trafficking come from our nation’s own foster care system. It’s a deeply broken system that leaves thousands vulnerable to pimps as children and grooms them for the illegal sex trade as young adults. Senator Rob Portman (R-Ohio) introduced legislation in 2017 to amend an antiquated 1996 […]

Darcy Olsen: Don’t let vulnerable children linger in foster care  

As a foster parent for seven years, I’ve cradled the opioid crisis in my arms.With parents unwilling or unable to get clean, 50,000 newborns will enter state foster care systems this year. What happens next is Russian roulette.Consider Mary, born in a Greyhound bus station bathroom. She tested positive for meth, heroin and alcohol. Nurses […]

Colleges, Universities Should Be Pressured to Help Students in Foster Care – Youth Today

Fostering Success Michigan compiled information on which four-year colleges have campus-based support programs for students who experienced foster care, creating the National Postsecondary Support Map. As the map shows, more than half the four-year institutions and/or states are failing current and prospective students who have been in or are in foster care by not providing […]

Fairfax High School seniors hope to create a choir for children in foster care | Articles | fairfaxtimes.com

Nedah Hatami and Jessica Davis did not know much about Fairfax County’s foster care system before they started looking into it for a school project.As members of Fairfax High School’s DECA chapter, a co-curricular organization that teaches leadership skills to students enrolled in marketing classes, the two 12th-grade students were tasked with developing a marketing […]