Over the past few days, several articles have reported this story about an Indian family living in Norway whose children were placed in foster care, sparking accusations of racial and cultural prejudice. According to The Telegraph article that was published today, Norway has accused the parents of over-feeding their children and allowing them to co-sleep. [...]
Tomorrow at noon the Minnesota legislative session will begin. We will be providing regular updates on bills and committee hearings throughout the session, just like we did last year. In addition, we will be updating our webpage on child welfare policy to include separate pages on Policy Resources, Live Federal Bill Tracking, and Live Minnesota [...]
On December 16, 2011, Senator Thomas Harkins (D-IA) introduced Keeping All Students Safe Act (S. 2020). This bill would protect all school children against harmful and life-threatening seclusion and restraint practices. The House has a companion bill H.R. 1381 introduced by Rep. George Miller (D-CA7). A similar bill was introduced in 2009 called Preventing Harmful [...]
Our new Minn-LInK report (full version and brief) highlights a study conducted through our Center, in partnership with Hearth Connection, that shows the positive impact supportive housing has on educational outcomes and overall child well being for children in homeless families. The children involved in this study were enrolled in Hearth Connection's supportive housing program [...]
Because the Minnesota legislative session will begin in a couple of weeks, I'd like to focus this blog post on a Minnesota-specific bill related to child welfare. Last April, the Minnesota House (HF 0749) and Senate (SF 1339) introduced a bill called the Family Reunification Act of 2011. The bill would reestablish legal rights between [...]
On January 11, United Front hosted the 2012 Children and Youth Issues Briefing in St. Paul, which was described as an event to "celebrate recent successes, identify issues of importance for the 2012 legislative session and learn more about innovative initiatives making a difference in our communities." The briefing began with an overview of the [...]
Each Friday on the Stability, Permanency and Adoption blog we will provide a selection of news from the past week that you may have missed. Today's news round up: In Ontario, Canada, working parents who participate in foster-to adopt programs can participate in parental leave benefits. The Star online reports that even if the child [...]
Last week, Matthew Fraidin, Visiting Professor at Georgetown University Law Center, wrote an essay titled, Changing the Narrative of Child Welfare for the Huffington Post. In the article, Fraidin critiques the current system that harms more than helps children by unnecessarily removing many of them from their parents' homes because of factors related to poverty, [...]