What If We Gave Struggling Families as Much Support as Foster Parents?

When it comes to child welfare, social work experts and parents in B.C. say we’re investing in the wrong end of the system — pouring money into foster care instead of offering adequate support to vulnerable families, many of whom are Indigenous.

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Kentucky Will Use New Federal Law to Keep More Kids Out of Foster Care

Child advocates in Kentucky say a new federal law aims to help at-risk families and prevent youth from entering the foster care system.

While it doesn't provide any new funding, the Family First Prevention Services Act signed by President Donald Trump last year gives states more flexibility in how they spend federal money on child welfare.

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New report released on troubles in DCFS Intact Family Services program

Usually when these programs fail it's because they've been de-funded.  When properly funded, it's the best thing for the kid. 

Illinois' child welfare agency is so intent on keeping children with their parents even when they have strong evidence of abuse that it has sometimes left those children in grave danger, a study released Wednesday found. 

Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker ordered the study of the Department of Children and Family Services' Intact Family Services unit after the recent deaths of three children. That unit is responsible for overseeing households in which children are left at home after allegations of abuse or neglect. 

More >> New report released on troubles in DCFS Intact Family Services program

New law aims to keep at-risk families together, out of welfare system

A New Illinois law provides more childcare for families with children at risk of entering the child welfare system.

The law, House Bill 4885, provides child care for children younger than 5 who are part of an Illinois Department of Children and Family Services intact family case. After the DCFS case is closed, the families get an additional six months of child care.

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Former Wythe DSS worker facing embezzlement charge

Accused of using grant money to make personal purchases, a former Wythe County social worker has been charged with embezzling public funds.

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The grant money was supposed to be used to help keep children out of foster care, according to a prosecutor.

Program to reunite families disrupted by substance abuse exceeding expectations

When children are removed from the home or face the risk of removal because of parental substance abuse, the experience can be traumatic and have long-lasting effects on both the children and parents. A federally funded project designed to reunify and strengthen families in these situations throughout Kansas has shown success in reducing the traumatic effects substance abuse can have, and it is beginning to show progress in boosting reunification of families over traditional services.

Kansas Serves Substance Affected Families is a federally funded program now in its fourth of five years. The $2.9 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families is part of a national effort through public-private partnerships to improve well-being, safety and reunification outcomes.

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Our View: Prevention is the best fix for Arizona's foster care system

Editorial: Arizona has programs like Healthy Families that are proven to prevent child neglect and abuse. But funding was slashed and never restored.

More >> Our View: Prevention is the best fix for Arizona's foster care system

Keeping Children in the Family Instead of Foster Care

As the first American woman to win four gold medals in a single Olympic Games, 19-year-old Simone Biles has not only brought international acclaim to the U.S. gymnastics program but has also drawn attention to the power of adoption. Simone spent her early years in and out of foster care after she and her three siblings were removed from the care of their single mother, who struggled with drug addiction. When she was six years old, her maternal grandfather, Ron Biles, and his wife, Nellie, adopted Simone and her younger sister (her older siblings were adopted by another relative).

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Sen. Ron Wyden to introduce bill on foster care reform

Sen. Ron Wyden to introduce bill on foster care reform

When he first started working in Oregon’s child welfare system fresh out of college in 2002, Charles Nyby learned to avoid telling people what he did for a living.

Ky program helps drug addicts keep their babies

Ky program helps drug addicts keep their babies

Born into suffering, babies of addicted moms are often torn from their families — compounding the physical pain of drug withdrawal with the lifelong pain of separation.

Family Preservation Falters in the Heartland

Family Preservation Falters in the Heartland

On New Year’s Eve, the Minnesota Department of Human Services released a slate of recommendations, which call for dismantling much of the child protection philosophy that has dominated the state for the past 15 years.

Children’s services under threat, warns agency chief

Children’s services under threat, warns agency chief

Social services will be reduced to a “basic child protection service” next year unless significant additional money is made available, the head of the Child and Family Agency has warned. The agency, which took over responsibilty for child and family services from the HSE earlier this year, is running about €25 million over-budget. This is due mainly to inherited legal bills.

Trio of Powerful Child Welfare Groups Back New Plan for Federal Financing

Trio of Powerful Child Welfare Groups Back New Plan for Federal Financing

Three child welfare organizations are pushing a plan that would overhaul federal child welfare financing, and challenges other recent calls for limitations on federal support for congregate care.

Family PReservation: No Shortcuts For Youths

Family PReservation: No Shortcuts For Youths

Keeping families together is a worthy goal. Research argues, convincingly, that children in the child-welfare system who stay with their parents have more successful lives than children placed in foster care.

More spent on foster care than programs to reunite parents, kids

More spent on foster care than programs to reunite parents, kids

Butler County Children Services spends almost 10 times more money placing endangered children outside their homes than it does funding programs that help parents get their children back.

Push to address number of Pa. children in foster care and similar settings yields progress

Push to address number of Pa. children in foster care and similar settings yields progress

A six-year effort by the state court system and child welfare agencies has reduced by a third the number of abused or neglected Pennsylvania children in foster care or similar settings, a process that officials say has improved the lives of some of the state's most vulnerable residents.

Child, family services organization shuts down program in Bangor, Harrington, Saco

Child, family services organization shuts down program in Bangor, Harrington, Saco

A South Portland nonprofit organization has closed a program at three locations around the state that provided services to bolster children and families.

Program to help infants, young children of Maine drug addicts seeks to change culture

Program to help infants, young children of Maine drug addicts seeks to change culture

Instead of asking a drug-addicted parent, “What’s wrong with you?” a partnership of nearly three dozen agencies and providers in eastern Maine is now going to ask, “What happened to you?”

LePage budget should provide more funding to reunify families, not keep kids in foster care

LePage budget should provide more funding to reunify families, not keep kids in foster care


The proposed reductions in funding for the Department of Health and Human Services are being positioned by the governor as prudent fiscal management of Maine’s resources in his effort to balance the budget.

1,800 fewer kids in Pa. foster care as family programs pay off

1,800 fewer kids in Pa. foster care as family programs pay off


The number of kids entering foster care in Pennsylvania is declining -- along with an ongoing reduction in the foster care population, according to a new report from Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children, an independent nonprofit.