Tagged With "Administrative Office of Courts"
Blog Post
The All-Too-Common Tragedy of Foster Care (nytimes.com)
By Jane Coaston, title image by Alex Merto, The New York Times, December 18, 2021 In 2006, 3-year-old Marcus Fiesel was murdered by his foster parents near Cincinnati. They left him in a second-floor closet in August wrapped in tape and a blanket in a playpen with no food or water while they went out of town to a family reunion, dog in tow. When they returned home, they took his body to an abandoned chimney, doused it in gasoline and burned it, throwing most of the remains into the Ohio...
Blog Post
Foster Care Supply Drive delighted by community response
After a successful pilot launch, the Foster Care Supply Drive is set to expand throughout SW Washington State in the Spring of 2022. During the pilot phase, which began in Washougal/Camas we were able to procure enough donations from 6 businesses to create 110 welcome bags for youth entering foster care. Donation bins and marketing materials are scheduled to be delivered between March 1st, 2022, and March 4th, 2022. The Foster Care Supply Drive was created based on first-hand experiences of...
Blog Post
Stop Blaming the Uncooperative Mother [imprintnews.org]
By Karen Baynes-Dunning, Photo: Unsplash, The Imprint, January 31, 2022 I titled this essay Stop Blaming the “Uncooperative Mother,” because it has become a racial trope used by well-intentioned people who work with families throughout our nation’s child welfare system. Over nearly 30 years of working in and around the child welfare system, I have heard variations on this theme: the angry mother; the hostile mother; the disrespectful mother; the antagonistic mother; the aggressive mother;...
Blog Post
Proposed class-action alleges systemic discrimination of Inuit children in care in Quebec (aptnnews.ca)
The wheels are officially in motion for a proposed class-action lawsuit involving Inuit children in the northern Quebec region of Nunavik. On Monday, a trio of law firms filed an application in Quebec Superior Court on behalf of all Inuit children who endured “decades of allegedly discriminatory and unlawful underfunding of child welfare” and other essential services in the north. If approved, the class-action would impact all Inuit children who were taken into the Quebec child welfare...
Blog Post
Cocreating a More Equitable Child Welfare System [cbexpress.acf.hhs.gov]
By the Capacity Building Center for States, Children's Bureau Express, March 2022 "Historically, the child welfare system has not served all people equitably, and too often, poverty has been treated as neglect and child maltreatment."— Letter From Children's Bureau Associate Commissioner Aysha E. Schomburg , August 3, 2021 Racial inequity, disparities, and disproportionality are complex and longstanding challenges in child welfare that cannot be addressed in isolation. Rather, the effort to...
Blog Post
Youth Thrive Blueprint: Tools and Resources for Putting Youth Thrive into Practice [cssp.org]
CSSP is excited to share our new Youth Thrive Blueprint: Tools and Resources for Putting Youth Thrive into Practice . The Youth Thrive Blueprint is: A practice resource for youth-serving agencies and organizations to advance the well-being of young people—ages 9-26 years. Full of actionable ideas and tools to build young people’s strengths and Protective and Promotive Factors . Developed with a focus on young people in foster care and relevant to other settings such as: afterschool and...
Blog Post
Register now! Building a National Movement to Prevent Trauma and Foster Resilience Workshop Series Friday, April 1, 2022 from 1-5pm ET/10am-2pm PT - Activating and Equipping Community Coalitions!
It's free to join, so sign up at this link today! You’re invited to participate in Building the Movement in Activating and Equipping Community Coalitions , the seventh of eight remarkable workshops featured in the series, “Building a National Movement to Prevent Trauma and Foster Resilience”. This half-day workshop will occur virtually on Friday, April 1 from 1 p.m. - 5 p.m. ET. The half-day convening comprises presentations made up of educators and experts from across the country who will...
Blog Post
An algorithm that screens for child neglect raises concerns [apnews.com]
By Sally Ho and Garance Burke, AP News, April 29, 2022 Inside a cavernous stone fortress in downtown Pittsburgh, attorney Robin Frank defends parents at one of their lowest points – when they risk losing their children. The job is never easy, but in the past she knew what she was up against when squaring off against child protective services in family court. Now, she worries she’s fighting something she can’t see: an opaque algorithm whose statistical calculations help social workers decide...
Blog Post
Amid Protest, L.A. County Looks to Early Legal Representation for Parents to Avoid Foster Care Removals [imprintnews.org]
By Jeremy Loudenback, Photo: Jeremy Loudenback, The Imprint, May 17, 2022 H oisting signs that read “Fund Families, Not Systems” and “Poverty Is Not Neglect,” protesters in downtown Los Angeles today chanted “Black Families Matter!” and shared their wrenching experiences of family separation through the foster care system. “If you are outraged that the Supreme Court may soon allow the government to reach into your womb and control whether you have children, you should be deeply outraged that...
Blog Post
Ashland, Wayne agencies work to ease trauma for court-involved, fractured families [times-gazette.com]
By Linda Hall, Photo: Tom E. Puskar/Times-Gazette.com, Ashland Times-Gazette, May 26, 2022 When children are placed in foster care , it's understood they are experiencing trauma. What's not always recognized is their parents are in a hard place, too. Ashland County's courts, area social services and other sectors of the Ashland and Wayne communities are hoping to join forces to promote positive parenting and successful reunification of children in foster care with their birth parents.
Blog Post
Connecticut Codifies Child Welfare Protections for Native American Families in State Law [imprintnews.org]
By The Imprint Staff Reporters, Photo: Unsplash, The Imprint, June 2, 2022 T he Connecticut governor signed a new law late last month ensuring that federal protections for American Indian families are also enforced in state law — even if a pending U.S. Supreme Court case invalidates the related federal statute. The legislation approved by Gov. Ned Lamont (D) ensures that proceedings involving an Indigenous child’s custody, placement in a foster or adoptive home or termination of parental...
Blog Post
Alignment Between Early Childhood and Child Welfare Systems Benefits Children and Families [childtrends.org]
By Elizabeth Jordan, Sharon Vandivere, and Esther Gross, Child Trends, June 7, 2022 Both the early childhood and child welfare systems are investing in promising new ways to support families with young children, particularly as they strive to recover from the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and strive to become more equitable. Families with young children have faced a set of unique challenges during the pandemic, as already fragile child care centers and family-based child care have...
Blog Post
Training Module Focuses on Substance Use Among Pregnant and Parenting Families [cfffutures.org]
A four-part training, Tribal Family Wellness Plan Learning Modules , developed by the Quality Improvement Center for Collaborative Community Court Teams in collaboration with the Tribal Law and Policy Institute , provides guidance for tribal child welfare providers about implementing programs and practices that reduce the impact of substance use on pregnant and parenting families. The goals of the module include reducing the impact of substance use on pregnant and parenting families,...
Blog Post
Strengthening Families with Infants and Toddlers: A Policy Framework for States [zeroththree.org
Strengthening Families with Infants and Toddlers: A Policy Framework for States , is a new report from ZERO TO THREE designed to reframe the role of child welfare from preventing harm to children toward strengthening families and the communities where they live. The policy framework includes 11 recommendations for states and communities that aim to advance equitable outcomes supporting the health and well-being of very young children and their families, including those who are in or are at...
Blog Post
After a medical misdiagnosis, my kids were wrongfully taken from me. It took 5 months to get them back. (newsbreak.com)
Author Kelly Burch's article, After a medical diagnosis, my kids were wrongfully taken from me. Lorina Troy took her son J.J. to the hospital, where doctors suspected abuse. J.J. later received a diagnosis of a medical condition that causes fluid in the brain. This is Lorina's story, as told to Kelly Burch. This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Lorina Troy. It has been edited for length and clarity. When my son J.J. was born, something seemed off from the beginning. His head...
Member
Candace Cruz
Blog Post
Flourishing Families, Centering Justice: Policy solutions for prevention-focused, trauma-informed supports for children and families (Webinar recording now available!)
Over 130 people gathered on November 1, 2022, to learn more about how to create a system that supports child and family well-being during the 4CA Flourishing Families, Centering Justice webinar. The event focused on trauma-informed primary, secondary, and tertiary policy approaches to support struggling families and keep them together. The webinar began with a brief overview of historical and current policies that have contributed to racism, inequity, and family separation in the United...
Blog Post
Supreme Court hears case challenging who can adopt Indigenous children [pbs.org]
PBS News Hour, November 4, 2020 As the Supreme Court considers the constitutionality of the Indigenous Child Welfare Act, many Native Americans anxiously await the outcome. The law governs the removal of Native American children from their homes and where they are subsequently placed. It's an effort to keep them with other family members and their tribes. Stephanie Sy reports on the challenge that could dismantle it entirely. Read the Full Transcript
Blog Post
Race Question in Supreme Court Adoption Case Unnerves Tribes [nytimes.com]
By Jan Hoffman, Photo: Allison V. Smith/The New York Times, The New York Times, November 7, 2022 The little girl who will soon be known by the nine justices of the United States Supreme Court as Y.R.J. is now 4 years old. For much of her short life she has been living with Dr. Jennifer Brackeen and Chad Brackeen, a suburban Texas couple fighting with the Navajo Nation to adopt her. Y.R.J.’s birth mother is Navajo. The Brackeens are white. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear arguments...
Blog Post
Texas case could change adoption rules for Native American children, and undercut tribal rights [texastribune.org]
By Roxanna Asgarian, Photo by Shuran Huang, The Texas Tribune, November 10, 2022 Jennifer and Chad Brackeen, an anesthesiologist and a stay-at-home dad, already had two biological children when they decided to foster a child. “God started to speak to our hearts about opening our home for more,” Jennifer explained in a now-defunct blog. The Evangelical Christian couple in Fort Worth began caring for a 10-month-old boy in 2016, and the next year, decided they wanted to adopt him. But the boy...
Blog Post
North Carolina moves closer to creating nation's first ACEs-informed courts system
(l-r) Judge J. Corpening; Ben David, district attorney, New Hanover County; Chief Justice Paul Newby; Judge Andrew Heath, executive director, Administrative Office of the Courts of the Chief Justice's ACEs Informed Courts Task Force. David and Heath serve as Task Force co-chairs . “There is not any more important work going on in the State of North Carolina,” said Ben David, District Attorney for New Hanover County and co-chair of the Chief Justice’s ACEs-Informed Task Force . The Task force...
Member
Hilary K Marine
Blog Post
“Going Way Upstream” - Panelists at Resilient Pender County Conference report on current trauma prevention and healing efforts; look to future
Amy Read of Coastal Horizons introduces the panel following a viewing of "Resilience: The Biology of Stress, The Science of Hope", at the Pender Resiliency Task Force Mini Conference Thursday, June 8 ,at Heide Trask High School in Rocky Point. A "dream team" of subject-matter expert panelists (L-R) were Ryan Estes of Coastal Horizons, Ben David, district attorney for Pender and New Hanover counties, Judge J. H. Corpening, district court judge for New Hanover and Pender counties, Taylor...
Blog Post
PACEs Research Corner — May 2023, Part 2
[Editor's note: Dr. Harise Stein at Stanford University edits a web site — abuseresearch.info — that focuses on the effects of abuse, and includes research articles on PACEs. Every month, she posts the summaries of the abstracts and links to research articles that address only ACEs, PCEs and PACEs. Thank you, Harise!! — Rafael Maravilla] Domestic Violence – Effects on Children Makris G, Eleftheriades A, Pervanidou P. Early Life Stress, Hormones, and Neurodevelopmental Disorders. Horm Res...
Blog Post
“Caring for our own” theme emerges at May Meeting of North Carolina Chief Justice’s Task Force on ACEs-Informed Courts
Ben David, co-chair of the North Carolina Chief Justice's Task Force on ACEs-Informed Courts, shares plans to sustain the work done during the two-year term of the Task Force, to "care for our own" speaking of North Carolina's children, youth, families, communities, victims of crimes, members of law enforcement, the judiciary and court officers and staffers. He also shared Chief Justice Paul Newby's hopes of "getting ACEs-informed courts" into the culture, and said a national conference for...
Member
Sylvia Novakoff
Blog Post
A Balanced View on Mandated Reporting versus Family Supporting
Viewpoint July 31, 2023 Seeking a Balanced View of Child Protective Services Howard Dubowitz, MD, MS 1 ; Richard P. Barth, PhD, MSW 1 Author Affiliations Article Information JAMA Pediatr. 2023;177(10):991-992. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2023.2578 A s professionals working closely with child protective services (CPS) for many years, we are well aware of its shortcomings, particularly undertrained and overwhelmed staff who may inadequately protect children and serve families as mandated by...