Foster Youth

Suicide Looms Large in Minds of Many Foster Youth

The suicide of any child is a tragedy, but studies show children in foster care are four times more likely than other children to attempt to take their own lives. Suicide risk is correlated with depression, lack of social support … Read More

Educational Supports for Youth in Foster Care

This factsheet discusses laws that require child welfare agencies to make reasonable efforts to provide services that will help families remedy the conditions that brought the child and family into the child welfare system. The issues examined include what constitutes … Read More

A New Deal for Transition Age Foster Youth in California: A Policy Roadmap for Ensuring a Resilient Recovery after COVID-19

This policy brief calls upon policymakers at every level to prioritize the immediate and long-term needs of transition age youth who are in foster care or have recently emancipated from foster care. In times of health and prosperity, foster youth … Read More

Truly Universal: Overcoming Barriers to School Choice for Youth in Foster Care.

School choice was intended to expand options and equity, and it holds promise for many students with unique needs. But it is clear that no choice system can be equitable until all students have real access to those choices. Trinidad, … Read More

Human Trafficking and Child Welfare: A Guide for Caseworkers

Child welfare caseworkers can be an invaluable resource in helping communities respond to the human trafficking of children. Children involved with child welfare are at risk for being targeted by traffickers because of their potentially unstable living situations, physical distance … Read More

Without Family, U.S. Children in Foster Care Easy Prey for Human Traffickers

Without family, U.S. children in foster care easy prey for human traffickers Thomson Reuters Foundation – May 03, 2018 Hundreds of thousands of U.S. children live in foster care, prey to predator sex traffickers who may find their young victims … Read More

Elements of Family First Shifting Foster Care

As states make system changes related to implementing the Family First Prevention Services Act, there will be more emphasis on prevention programs targeting the whole family system and keeping them involved once a child is removed from the home. CLICK … Read More

When Their World is Already Upside Down: Supporting Grieving Children and Teens in Foster Care During the COVID-19 Global Health Crisis

This brief explains the increased forced isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbates the experiences of loss and disconnection among children and adolescents in foster care. It notes that in-person visits are what many children and teens in foster care … Read More

Elements of Family First Shifting Foster Care

As states make system changes related to implementing the Family First Prevention Services Act, there will be more emphasis on prevention programs targeting the whole family system and keeping them involved once a child is removed from the home. CLICK … Read More

Reasonable Efforts as Prevention

by Jerry Milner and David Kelly  –  November 6, 2006 Far too often the wrong examples drive child welfare policy and practice in the United States. We see it time and time again in jurisdictions where there is a child fatality; … Read More