| Date |
Summary |
Content Type |
| Jan 28, 2004 |
For the last nine months, I have been privileged to chair the Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care, a task I share with my colleague, former Representative Bill Gray. This independent, nonpartisan commission, funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts, includes some of the wisest and most experienced individuals in the field of child welfare. You heard from one of them this morning, New York City Commissioner William Bell. The other members of our Commission are no less impressive.
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Issue Brief |
| Sep 20, 2005 |
When student loans are the only way to pay for college, who decides how much debt a degree is worth? This paper explores how debt aversion and conflicting views about the role of student loans affect young people, their families, and those who advise them. More info
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Report |
| Apr 2, 2006 |
"Our nation's foster care system is far from perfect, and its casualties are vulnerable children. As a young woman who spent more than half of her life in foster care, and a judge who oversees foster care cases, we witness its impact firsthand.On average, children remain in foster care for three years, and move three times. They are separated from friends, siblings and family for long, uncertain periods of time, and can grow out of foster care without becoming part of a loving, permanent family." More info
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Opinion |
| May 30, 2006 |
"'Let me stay in a home with loving parents that care for me,' writes Antoinette, age 14, in her poem, "To the Judge." "I want to be somewhere where I can live life as a child, in a better situation. Can you find a home that is truly good and where the people will help me?"In California, we are responsible for 8 More info
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Opinion |
| Sep 7, 2006 |
"'I raised my grandchildren. I had to because I had no alternative but to raise them,' Dorothy, age 79, says of her grandchildren. "I had to take my little Social Security and my retirement benefits and take care of these kids. I don't know how I did it."Dorothy is remarkable, but not unusual. Rather than let he More info
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Opinion |
| Jul 2, 2007 |
Compared to other states, child welfare is high on the list of legislative priorities in Washington. This high level of legislative activity can be attributed in part to a number of recent events that are briefly described below. In addition, the legislature, particularly the House, has a number of experienced champions of children's issues, including Rep. Ruth Kagi, chair of the House Early Learning and Children's Services Committee, and Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson, chair of the House Human Services Committee, among others.
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Issue Brief |
| Sep 3, 2007 |
Tennessee's child welfare system has undergone dramatic changes over the past few years. Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, child welfare in Tennessee was under-funded and fragmented among six state agencies that failed to communicate with one another or coordinate their efforts. In 1996, a single state agency, the Department of Children's Services (DCS) was created by executive order to house child welfare and juvenile justice services. In 2000, Children's Rights, a national non-profit that advocates for children in foster care, filed a class action lawsuit, claiming over-utilization of emergency shelters and large group facilities, untrained caseworkers, high levels of placement instability, inadequate efforts to achieve permanency, inadequate educational services and disparate treatment of African-American children in foster care. More info
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Issue Brief |
| Oct 1, 2007 |
Michigan is experiencing severe economic and fiscal problems due primarily to a downturn in the automobile industry, resulting in a budget deficit of approximately $856.4 million at the end of the state's 2007 fiscal year (September 30). Because of these issues, many of the state's budget bills are still being debated as of the date of this memo. The human services budget bill, SB 232, was passed by the Senate on August 22, 2007. The House passed an amended version of the bill on September 6, 2007. The bill is currently in conference committee. This memo will summarize those provisions in the bills that are relevant to reform of federal child welfare financing. When a budget is finally approved and signed by the Governor, this memo will be updated.
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Issue Brief |
| Nov 19, 2007 |
American Indian and Alaskan Native children are overrepresented in the nation's foster care system at more than 1.6 times the expected level, according to a new report by the National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA) and the national, nonpartisan Kids Are Waiting campaign, a project of The Pew Charitable Trusts. Yet tribal governments are excluded from some of the largest sources of federal child welfare funding.
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Press Release |
| Dec 6, 2007 |
Child welfare services in Montana are administered by Child and Family Services Division (CFSD) within the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services. Recent events and initiatives of note are the federal CFSR in 2002 and resulting PIP, completed successfully in 2006, and a study of the child welfare system in the summer of 2006 by the legislative Children, Families, Health and Human Services Interim Committee. Both of these events have focused attention on child welfare in Montana.
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Issue Brief |
| Dec 12, 2007 |
Each year, more than 500,000 children spend the holidays in foster care. In some cases the holidays may be spent with extended family, but more often it is spent with foster families to whom children are not related, or in group homes or institutional settings. Although foster care is an important safety net for children who have suffered abuse or neglect, being in foster care is not always easy.
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Report |
| Dec 12, 2007 |
Many current and former foster youth say that celebrating holidays without a permanent family is a tremendous challenge. Today, former foster youth from across the country joined policy makers and child welfare advocates to stuff holiday stockings for children currently in the foster care system at a Congressional reception sponsored by FosterClub. The event also marked release of a new brief, “Hoping for a Home for the Holidays,” by FosterClub and Kids Are Waiting, a project of The Pew Charitable Trusts.
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Press Release |
| Dec 17, 2007 |
"For youth from foster care, the holidays are often a stark reminder of what it means not to have a family. We miss the comfort of knowing we have a place where we are always welcome, year after year. We don't know the family traditions of mom's best tablecloth and china, dad's carving the turkey, grandma's famous stuffing recipe, football in the den with the cousins, or even the inevitable family dramas." More info
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Opinion |
| Jan 1, 2008 |
Ohio's child welfare system is state-supervised and county-administered. A number of recent developments and converging trends may have a significant impact on child welfare financing in Ohio. More info
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Issue Brief |
| Jan 23, 2008 |
The Pew Charitable Trusts launched the Home at Last initiative in 2003 to advance public policies that would keep children from languishing in foster care. More info
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Issue Brief |
| Jan 29, 2008 |
Approximately 3.6 million children were reported to child protection authorities as possible victims of abuse and neglect in 2005. Unfortunately, few data exist about services provided to these children, but it is estimated only 2.5 percent of these children receive any kind of preventive services. We do know that, of the 899,000 confirmed cases of maltreatment, our child welfare system provides services or supports to approximately 60 percent of the children.
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Report |
| Jan 29, 2008 |
An economic impact analysis released today estimates the costs of child abuse and neglect to society were nearly $104 billion last year, and a companion report highlights the unavailability of federal child welfare funding for programs and services known to be effective at reducing incidences of child abuse and neglect.
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Press Release |
| Jan 30, 2008 |
Child abuse and neglect cost the U.S. economy more than $104 billion in 2007, according to a new report that calls for more emphasis on prevention programs.
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Media Coverage |
| Feb 27, 2008 |
On Capitol Hill today, the youth and parents most impacted by the nation's foster care system joined child welfare advocates and others at a Congressional hearing to emphasize that now is the time for federal foster care reform. Convened by the Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support of the House Committee on Ways and Means, the hearing featured testimony by Hope Cooper of the national Kids Are Waiting campaign, a project of The Pew Charitable Trusts. More info
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Press Release |
| Feb 27, 2008 |
In 2003 Pew launched a national initiative aimed at finding ways to reduce the number of children languishing in foster care without permanent families. To date, we have invested more than $23 million towards achieving this goal. The initiative began with the work of the Pew Commission on Children in Foster care. In 2004, after more than a year of intensive study, the commission issued a report with policy recommendations for state court and federal financing reforms. More info
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Issue Brief |
| Apr 10, 2008 |
More than 500,000 children will close their eyes tonight as wards of the state in foster care. They are waiting for the security, stability and love of permanent families. Foster care was created as a short-term safety net for children in crisis, however, on average children will languish in care for more than two years. More than half the children leaving foster care will return home to their birth parents, and about 18 percent will leave foster care to adoptive families. For some, however, reunification with their parents or adoption is not an option. More info
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Report |
| May 13, 2008 |
"According to a report by the National Indian Child Welfare Association and Kids Are Waiting, Washington has one of the nation's highest rates of American Indian foster children. While they make up only 2 percent of Washington's child population, American Indians represent 8.4 percent of children in foster care." More info
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Opinion |
| May 21, 2008 |
On Tuesday May 20, 2008, Senator Charles Grassley (Iowa) introduced the Improved Adoption Incentives and Relative Guardianship Support Act of 2008. This new legislation champions permanency for children in foster care by reauthorizing the successful Adoption Incentive Program that encourages states to finalize more adoptions from foster care, ensures that all foster children with special needs can receive vital federal assistance, and provides federal guardianship support for grandparents and other relatives who want to provide a permanent home for the children they are raising.
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Press Release |
| Jul 23, 2008 |
The next presidential administration will face a host of complex policy issues concerning energy, the environment, food safety, consumer products and the workplace. One issue, however, that will impact virtually all of these policy areas is nanotechnology oversight.
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Report |
| Jul 30, 2008 |
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) announced today that the panel will hold a business meeting on Friday morning to consider three proposals that would support vulnerable children and protect senior citizens. Baucus said the proposals would strengthen and renew adoption incentives and foster care policies, provide resources to prevent elder abuse, neglect and exploitation, and do more to protect patients receiving care in nursing homes.
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Press Release |
