May is National Foster Care Awareness Month. This is a way to bring awareness and attention to the needs of foster youths, foster parents, adoptive parents, and so many other individuals who work to help these children succeed. Interestingly, May is also National Mental Health Awareness Month per a presidential proclamation signed by President Barack [...]
Early Childhood Education Emerges as Important Issue The E-12 Omnibus bill (HF630), as it currently stands, makes early childhood education a clear priority. Both the House and Senate files include funding for all day kindergarten beginning in 2015 and expand scholarships for children ages 3-5 to attend quality child care facilities. The House bill also [...]
In a previous post, I wrote about a number of bills introduced that aimed to address children's mental health. The introduction of the Education (SF 978) and Health & Human Services (SF1034) omnibus bills featured several mental health provisions that were originally proposed within individual bills. Inclusion of these provisions in the omnibus bills increases [...]
New Legislation Proposed This legislative session has seen mental health, particularly children's mental health, emerge as a pressing issue. Another bill currently being debated would change the ways in which Minnesota deals with the issue of maternal depression and provides for the care of new and expectant mothers and their babies. This bill, HF1047/SF582, would [...]
Since this is my first guest post, I thought I would introduce myself. My name is Kelly and I am in my second year as a graduate assistant with the Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare and a current MSW student. My field placement with a private agency providing children's mental health services has [...]