CWDA

A number of news outlets have published articles in the past two weeks about the children and parents separated by Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) as they cross our borders. Some of these articles have referred to the children handed over to contracted agencies and placed into homes as being “in foster care.”

In the world of policy, decision makers try to balance the needs of various constituencies to drive toward incremental change. Reform efforts that start with the best of intentions can have unintended consequences, often for the very people they are trying to help.

Foster youth approach the age of 18 with serious health and socioeconomic risk factors, but do so with optimism and a sense of support, according to the baseline findings from a five-year study on California youths released late last week.

Foster youth supporters in California are on the cusp of stitching together an education reform package that promises to dramatically improve academic outcomes for students in foster care. Now it is up to legislators in Sacramento to jolt it to life.  

As Friday’s constitutional deadline for a California state budget looms, Gov. Jerry Brown’s Administration is at a loggerheads with advocates about the future of mandates supporting the educational success of vulnerable children.

Assm. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) adresses foster youth on the Capitol steps in Sacramento in run-up to AB 1712’s passage in the State Assembly. By. Amabelle Ocampo On May 30th a bill that would clarify how foster care is extended in California passed the State Assembly with a unanimous 76-0 vote.