David Kelly

Jey Rajaraman, former chief counsel and supervising attorney of Legal Services of New Jersey's Family Representation Project, has joined a new arm of the consulting firm Public Knowledge.

Arkansas' most populous county has seen skyrocketing foster care and worker turnover in the past two years. The state is bringing in a new consulting firm started by former federal leaders to rethink things.

The duo who ushered in new legal support for system-involved families during the Trump administration are spearheading a new venture to work with governments interested in a complete overhaul of the child welfare status quo.

David Kelly, an attorney who helped expand the federal investment in legal support for parents and children involved in child welfare cases, left his post as special assistant to the associate commissioner of the Children’s Bureau this week.

In late 2018, the U.S. Children’s Bureau opened up the federal tap for an oft-underfunded corner of the child welfare system: legal counsel for parents, or children, involved in dependency court cases. 

This week was supposed to be a triumphant one for a Northern California mother of two, a 39-year-old home health aide. Soon after a long-scheduled court date at the Sonoma County Hall of Justice this week, she imagined she would soon be able to gather her 1-year-old daughter in her arms at last and end what has been the most terrifying experience of her life: the seven months her toddler has spent in foster care.

In a world where “social distancing” has become a necessary practice and the primary preventative measure for reducing the spread of coronavirus, we must remember that children in foster care and their families have already been “distanced” from each other.

Last week, City Journal, a magazine and website published by the Manhattan Institute, published a fear-mongering column entitled “Parents Rights,’ at the Expense of Kids’ Safety.” In that piece, a writer named Naomi Schaefer Riley, a fellow with the American Enterprise Institute, made two points.

An emboldened parent defense movement convened at a Ritz-Carlton near Washington, D.C., last week, intent to capitalize on recent policy victories and public attention. The goal? To reduce the number of parents they believe are unnecessarily separated from their kids by the child welfare system.