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National Child Welfare Headlines: April 18-April 29, 2022
Please review the following news updates impacting the triad April 18, 2022, through April 29, 2022.
Four New Cities Join Generation Work
The Annie E. Casey Foundation has selected four new cities to participate in Generation Work™, which aims to improve employment outcomes for young adults of color from low-income families. – The Annie E. Casey Foundation
COVID-19 Survey: Insights for Policymakers on Supporting Families
A nationwide survey, conducted by Brookings with support from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, explores how Americans are coping with the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic and offers insights for policymakers to advance equity in supporting children, young people and families. – The Annie E. Casey Foundation
Wellness In the Workforce With Bridgette Carr and Vivek Sankaran
On this week’s podcast, we discuss what’s happened in Ohio since the death of Ma’Khia Bryant a year ago, how child welfare might figure into California’s ideas around reparations, Connecticut’s new approach to helping families, and more. – The Imprint
Should institutional placements be eliminated for youth in foster care?
Several research studies document negative outcomes and experiences for youth placed in institutional settings. Despite this, 1 out of every 10 children removed from their families and placed in foster care are in a residential or group placement. Missing from the current discourse on group placement are the voices of those with lived experience, which must be at the center of the conversation moving forward. This research report by Think of Us aims to fill that gap, providing insights about institutional placements from youth who experienced them. – Casey Family Programs
Md. juvenile justice bills seek to ‘treat children as children’
While her son spent 891 days in Maryland juvenile detention over a stolen cellphone, Keisha Hogan found her voice.
Last month— seven years after her son was released — she delivered an impassioned speech to state lawmakers, asking them to support proposed legislation that would prevent other Maryland youths from being incarcerated under similar circumstances.
An algorithm that screens for child neglect raises concerns
From Los Angeles to Colorado and throughout Oregon, as child welfare agencies use or consider tools similar to the one in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, an Associated Press review has identified a number of concerns about the technology, including questions about its reliability and its potential to harden racial disparities in the child welfare system. Related issues have already torpedoed some jurisdictions’ plans to use predictive models, such as the tool notably dropped by the state of Illinois.
In America, 37% of all children – and 54% of Black children – will be the subject of investigation by child protective services by the time they turn 18. For 63% of children in the foster care system, “neglect” is cited as the reason why they were separated from their families. But the child welfare system in place in America right now doesn’t address the root causes of why these children are in these situations. Children have “needs that are being unmet and we need a radically different approach that dismantles this vicious system…because it’s taking children away from their families unnecessarily,” says Dorothy Roberts. In her new book “Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families—and How Abolition Can Build a Safer World,” she makes the argument that what children and families need is more support and resources, rather than the current system that polices families. – MSNBC