Behind Sesame Street, there is Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization whose mission is "to use the educational power of media to help children everywhere reach their highest potential." Sesame Workshop utilizes on-the-ground outreach and collaborations with partners and local agencies in order to have the most impact. Sesame Workshop's initiatives encompass many areas and [...]
One of the Minnesota legislature's areas of interest this past legislative session was mental health services, particularly school-based/school-linked services. Several of the bills that were introduced that focused on mental health services for children were included in either the education or health and human services omnibus bills. Funding for school-linked mental health services The education [...]
The 2013 KIDS COUNT data book from the Annie E. Casey Foundation was recently released. Updated each year, KIDS COUNT provides a snapshot of child and family well-being in the United States as well as within each individual state. The data found in this year's data book is from 2011. Because there is so much [...]
The main piece (in my opinion) of Chapter 108 (the session law that was the omnibus Health & Human Services Finance bill) is Article 17, which establishes Chapter 256N in Minnesota Statutes, Northstar Care for Children. As I said in an earlier blog post on Northstar Care for Children, this program will make foster care, [...]
Updated and edited 7/1/13 to reflect references to U.S. Code and to provide a cautionary word of advice (see last footnote). Guest blog post by Rebecca Scholtz. Child welfare professionals can play a crucial role in helping undocumented children access immigration assistance. You don't need to be an expert in immigration law to identify an [...]
Cross-posted from the College of Education and Human Development's News Blog. Registration is now open for the Permanency and Adoption Competency Certificate (PACC) program through the Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare (CASCW) at the University of Minnesota's School of Social Work. The PACC is geared towards mental health and child welfare professionals in [...]
In addition to Article 3 and Article 17 (Northstar Care for Children), there are other areas within Chapter 108 (the omnibus Health and Human Services finance bill) that are directly applicable to children and families involved in the child welfare system. These are just a few. Safe Harbor for Sexually Exploited Youth The Safe Harbor [...]
Last year I blogged about recommendations for state-level changes regarding Minnesota's parental recognition laws as they pertain to adoption and foster care by same-sex couples. As it stands, Minnesota law is unclear on the legality of joint adoptions and second-parent adoptions; these issues have instead been left up to individual courts to decide. Last week [...]