Featured Reports

Time for Reform

Many significant improvements have been made to the foster care system over the years, and across the country, case workers and court officials have worked to facilitate better outcomes for children in the government’s care. Yet the number of foster youth aging out of care keeps rising. In 2006, the latest year for which data are available, 26,181 youth aged out of care, a 119 percent increase since 1998. On average, youth who aged out of foster care in 2006 spent five years in the system, compared with less than two years for children who left through reunification, adoption, guardianship or other means.

Converting Basic Financial Services Fees into Prosperity

12 percent of California households lack a bank account and pay fees to cash checks and pay bills, adding up to $700 annually for the typical unbanked household.  The majority of these households appears to be qualified for bank accounts, but is either misinformed about the relative cost of banks or distrustful of them.

Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology has tremendous potential to contribute to human flourishing in socially just and environmentally sustainable ways. However, nanotechnology is unlikely to realize its full potential unless its associated social and ethical issues are adequately attended.

Safe Credit Card Standards

Credit card companies have powers unique in the world of retail lending. After a consumer has agreed to the terms of a credit card account and used the card to make purchases or obtain cash advances, the card issuer may lawfully rewrite the agreement or demand a higher rate of interest, even on funds previously advanced. In a one-year period between 2007 and 2008, issuers used these powers to raise interest rates on nearly one quarter of cardholder accounts. More info

It's Not Flu As Usual

Every winter, the U.S. suffers a seasonal flu that kills approximately 36,000 Americans and hospitalizes more than 200,000. Terrible as that is, health experts are now warning about a far more lethal kind of flu – a pandemic flu that could kill over half a million Americans, hospitalize more than two million, cost our economy billions in lost productivity and direct medical expenses, and impact virtually every community.

Comparison of GAPs for Fresh Produce

In the absence of mandatory federal regulations, a number of organizations and one state have stepped into the regulatory void and adopted their own standards for the growing and harvesting of fresh produce (fruits and vegetables intended to be consumed raw) aimed at minimizing microbial contamination.

Nanotechnology, Synthetic Biology, & Public Opinion

A groundbreaking poll finds that almost half of U.S. adults have heard nothing about nanotechnology, and nearly nine in 10 Americans say they have heard just a little or nothing at all about the emerging field of synthetic biology, according to a new report released by the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies and Peter D. Hart Research. Both technologies involve manipulating matter at an incredibly small scale to achieve something new.

Progress on Court Reforms

The release of the court recommendations of the Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care in 2004 focused greater attention on the need to enhance dependency court performance to achieve improved outcomes for children and youth in foster care and their families. As part of a first of its kind national judicial summit in 2005, states developed action plans to strengthen dependency court performance in the four critical areas identified by the Pew Commission: accountability, collaboration with child welfare agencies, judicial leadership, and constituent voice. The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 provided $100 million in court improvement funds to support judicial reforms across the country.

In this review, Kids Are Waiting both examines the progress that states have made since the 2005 summit in strengthening their dependency courts and improving outcomes for children, youth, and families, and makes recommendations for continued improvements.