- N.J. making progress revamping child welfare system once among worst in U.S., By Susan K. Livio, June 8, 2016, NJ.com: “The federal monitor of New Jersey’s child welfare system Wednesday praised the Christie administration for one again making “significant progress” working with troubled families last year, but also highlighted lingering problems caseworkers had ensuring a child is safe to return home from foster care. Like nearly all of her reports she has issued in the last decade, Judith Meltzer issued a mixed report card on the state’s overhaul of child protection services, but stressed how far the system had come from being once regarded as one of the nation’s worst…”
- Report shows recent, ‘significant’ increase of children in foster care, By Martha Stoddard, June 9, 2016, Omaha World-Herald: “A new state report shows that the number of Nebraska children in foster care has been growing in recent months, reversing a three-year downward trend. The Foster Care Review Office’s quarterly report offered no explanation for the change. But it said the increase for children in the child welfare system has been ‘significant…'”
Tag: New Jersey
TANF Benefits – New Jersey
Should N.J. raise welfare grants to reduce child poverty?, By Susan K. Livio, February 12, 2016, Star-Ledger: “After decades of pleading with state leaders to raise the value of welfare benefits in New Jersey, anti-poverty groups joined with top lawmakers at the Statehouse Thursday who vowed to phase-in a 30-percent increase over the next three years…”
Poverty Rate – New Jersey
- Record number of N.J. residents living in poverty, study finds, By MaryAnn Spoto, November 15, 2015, Star-Ledger: “More New Jersey residents are in poverty now than in the past five decades and the outlook for the future is bleak, according to a report released Sunday, which aims to redefine the definition of poor in the state. The findings in the study done for Legal Services of New Jersey, an organization based in Edison that gives free legal help to low-income residents in civil cases, paint a grim picture for those in the middle and lower classes. The reports also notes more families have remained in poverty since the 2008 Great Recession…”
- Report: One-third of N.J. residents in ‘true poverty’, By Shannon Mullen, November 16, 2015, Daily Record: “If you’re living paycheck to paycheck or falling behind on bills, you’ve got plenty of company. Nearly one-third of New Jersey households can’t make ends meet, the highest percentage since the 1960s, according to a new report issued by Legal Services of New Jersey. The state’s official poverty rate stood at just over 11 percent in 2014. But Legal Services, an Edison-based non-profit organization that provides legal aid to thousands of low-income state residents each year, says federal poverty income guidelines aren’t telling the full story…”