Utah foster care placements up 38% in past decade, legislative audit finds, By Marjorie Cortez, January 19, 2011, Deseret News: “The fallout of the 1993 federal lawsuit that challenged Utah’s child welfare practices may be a 38 percent increase in children being placed in foster care, a new legislative audit suggests. ‘Others believe the David C. vs. Leavitt lawsuit has made DCFS (the Division of Child and Family Services) and court staff risk averse and led them to protect children in foster care more than in-home,’ according to a performance audit of the Division of Child and Family Services released Tuesday. DCFS has operated under a court-appointed monitor for more than a decade under the lawsuit. Federal oversight ended in 2007. During the past decade, foster care placements in Utah have increased by 38 percent while the number of families that receive in-home supports that allow children to stay in their family homes has decreased by 40 percent, the audit by Legislative Auditor General shows…”
Day: January 19, 2011
Opinions: Poverty Measurement
- Poverty and recovery, Editorial, January 19, 2011, New York Times: “In 2008, the first year of the Great Recession, the number of Americans living in poverty rose by 1.7 million to nearly 47.5 million. While hugely painful, that rise wasn’t surprising given the unraveling economy. What is surprising is that recent census data show that those poverty numbers held steady in 2009, even though job loss worsened significantly that year. Clearly, the sheer scale of poverty – 15.7 percent of the country’s population – is unacceptable. But to keep millions more Americans from falling into poverty during a deep recession is a genuine accomplishment that holds a vital lesson: the safety net, fortified by stimulus, staved off an even more damaging crisis…”
- Where does the poverty line truly lie?, By Andrew Chambers, January 19, 2011, The Guardian: “Thailand is a development success story. The country is on target to meet or exceed all its millennium development goals (MDGs), and absolute poverty ($1 a day) is now less than 2%. However, do these statistics accurately measure what poverty is, and what is the next step in poverty reduction for middle-income countries like Thailand? How to define and measure poverty, therefore, is not just a dry academic debate, as these decisions greatly affect what policies are pursued…”
Suburban Poverty and Schools – Des Moines, IA
Suburban schools see growing levels of financial stress among families, By Sheena Dooley, January 18, 2011, Des Moines Register: “The number of low-income families living in Des Moines suburbs is on the rise, a trend that is pushing educators to find ways to ensure school-age youngsters keep pace academically. Iowa had more than 180,700 children and teens who qualified for free or reduced-price meals in 2009-10, up nearly 32,000 from 2004-05. Among those seeing the largest increases were suburban Des Moines districts. In 2009-10, for instance, 14 percent of Johnston’s students qualified for free or reduced-price meals. That percentage has more than doubled since the 2004-05 school year. Over the past five years, hundreds of suburbanites in Iowa and the nation have fallen out of the middle class. The result has been increased levels of poverty and demands for social services in communities where low-income residents have typically been in the shadows…”