- New child welfare audit says Oregon can do more to reunite parents and kids in foster care, By Michelle Cole, April 24, 2012, The Oregonian: “While Oregon child welfare caseworkers do better than the national average in seeing that children taken into state foster care are returned to their parents, a new audit also finds caseworkers often do not include parents in critical discussions concerning their families and have little time to ensure meaningful visits between parents and kids. Overall, the 28-page report portrays a system under stress. Overworked child welfare staff do not get much help from the central office in prioritizing their work. Parents were unable to get addiction treatment, mental health care or other services they needed before they could bring their kids back home…”
- If fewer kids are in D.C. foster care, why isn’t agency’s budget decreasing?, By Justin Moyer, April 24, 2012, Washington Post: “The number of children in the District’s child welfare system is continuing to drop, prompting officials to take a fresh look at how the city spends its $265 million child welfare budget. Across the region and across the country, social service agencies are seeing such declines, though the implications are especially significant for the District, which has a long history of child welfare crises. No single factor explains the drop in the District, but experts believe that the city’s changing demographics and renewed emphasis on keeping troubled families together are driving the trend. According to the D.C. Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA), the number of children it supervises has fallen to 3,400 from 4,654 in early 2009, a change of almost 30 percent…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty