Child Welfare Policy & Practice Blogs

Microaggressions, Feelings of Difference, and Resilience Among Adopted Children with Sexual Minority Parents

By Melissa Mendez|2016-12-01T19:32:51-06:00May 9th, 2016|Categories: Stability, Permanency, and Adoption|Tags: adoption, child welfare, Microaggressions, resilience, same-sex adoption, student blogger|

Today's Guest Blogger is Peter Holmlund-Fluker. Researchers from the University of Kentucky and the University of Massachusetts Amherst present the findings of their study on microaggressions experienced by preadolescent youth being raised by same-sex parents in the article, “Microaggressions, Feelings of Difference, and Resilience Among Adopted Children with Sexual Minority Parents.” Published in the September [...]

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The Insensitivity of Adoption Day Celebrations

By Melissa Mendez|2016-12-01T19:32:51-06:00May 9th, 2016|Categories: Stability, Permanency, and Adoption|Tags: adoption, adoption day, child welfare, Insensitivity, student blogger|

Today's Guest Blogger is Sheena Pruitt. Huffington Post published an article by Mirah Riben titled “The Insensitivity of Adoption Day Celebrations”. Riben’s article takes a critical look at not only adoption celebrations, but also terminology such as “Gotcha Day” or “G Day”, which is used to reference those celebrations. The article examines “G Day” from [...]

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Foster Youth Perceptions on Educational Well-Being

By Melissa Mendez|2016-12-01T19:32:51-06:00May 2nd, 2016|Categories: Stability, Permanency, and Adoption|Tags: academic achievement, child welfare, education, education disparities, foster care, Fostering Connections Act, kinship care, placement instability, resilience, school mobility, well-being|

Today's Guest Blogger is Micheline Mutombo Floyd Harris. I extracted my article entitled Foster Youth Perceptions on Educational Well-Being from the Families in Society Journal. The article was published in 2015, and focuses on the educational disparities between foster care youth and youth in kinship care in the state of Vermont. The article highlights school [...]

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Adopted Children Left Homeless, While Parents Still Get Money to Care for Them

By Melissa Mendez|2016-05-02T11:10:59-05:00May 2nd, 2016|Categories: Stability, Permanency, and Adoption|Tags: adoption, adoption assistance, homeless youth, student blogger|

Today's Guest Blogger is Mary Laderer. This article follows the stories of three adopted youth who ended up homeless and later found out that their adoptive parents were still receiving money from the government to care for them. The article asserts that there are loopholes in many states for adoptive parents to continue to receive [...]

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Muslim Orphans Caught between Islam and the West

By Melissa Mendez|2016-12-01T19:32:51-06:00April 27th, 2016|Categories: Stability, Permanency, and Adoption|Tags: adoption, cultural values, Islamic law, Muslim orphans, Permanency & Adoption, student blogger|

Today's guest blogger is Asha Islaw. My blog post is based off an article written by Rachel Zoll for The Washington Post, which was printed on Sunday January 2, 2011. The article is titled Muslim Orphans Caught between Islam and the West. I chose to write about this article and topic because it’s a topic [...]

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Gillibrand Seeks to Modernize Foster Care System, Get Children into Homes

By Melissa Mendez|2016-12-01T19:32:51-06:00April 27th, 2016|Categories: Stability, Permanency, and Adoption|Tags: child welfare, federal policy, foster care, Interstate Compact, kinship care, policy, student blogger|

Today's guest blogger is Matt Roesler. This article discusses a new bi-partisan U.S. Senate Bill S.2574 titled “Modernizing the Interstate Placement of Children in Foster Care Act”. The bill is co-sponsored by Senators Grassley, Gillibrand, Franken, Peters and Blumenthal. The bill aims to streamline placement of children into foster homes regardless of state lines. Currently [...]

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Adoption Agencies in Need of Volunteers

By Melissa Mendez|2016-12-01T19:32:51-06:00April 21st, 2016|Categories: Stability, Permanency, and Adoption|Tags: infant care, Permanency & Adoption Series, Permanency and Adoption series, short-term fostering, student blogger|

Today's Guest Blogger is Lea Stucci. The article that I chose was from ABC News, which aired on February 13, 2016, and was written by Joi Marie Mckenzie. It is titled, Adoption Agencies Don't Just Need Parents, They Need Volunteers. This article talks specifically about an organization in New York that needs volunteers to care [...]

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By Virtue or Design? Higher Placement Stability in Kinship Foster Care

By Melissa Mendez|2016-12-01T19:32:51-06:00April 21st, 2016|Categories: Stability, Permanency, and Adoption|Tags: out-of-home placements, Permanency & Adoption Series, placement, relative/kinship care, stability, student blogger|

Today's guest blogger is Shea Gregory This 2015 study, conducted by Sarah A. Font of the University of Texas at Austin Population Research Center, examines the circumstances surrounding stability of kinship placements. Using data from the state of Wisconsin, this study goes beyond exploring whether kinship care placements (KC) are more stable than non-relative foster [...]

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