A roundup of The Imprint’s most impactful stories in 2020
Congress approved legislation in 2018 that will reduce federal spending on group homes and institutions. Since that law was signed, several investigative stories in our pages and others around the country have exposed the shortcomings that prompted it.
Lead Reads: California sent thousands of vulnerable children to out-of-state facilities run by a for-profit company. Reports of rampant abuse followed. Now, confronted with a Chronicle and Imprint investigation, the state is bringing every child home.
An investigation by The Imprint and the Texas Observer revealed a culture of silence that has kept wrongdoing hidden at residential care facilities housing foster youth in Texas. In 2019 alone, the state received more than 2,000 reports of abuse, neglect or exploitation inside RTCs and other residential institutions.
Also Read: Hundreds of Texas residential centers were exposed to the coronavirus, according to documents that came out in proceedings related to the ongoing court supervision of the state’s child welfare agency.
The lingering effects of cutbacks during the Great Recession is challenging the ability of Washington state to safely house some of its oldest, most in-need foster youth.