Child Welfare

A federal judge on Wednesday gave final approval to a settlement with Arizona that puts an end to a six-year legal battle over the foster care system, but not before hearing from skeptics about whether the state will be able to keep its promises to some of society’s most vulnerable youngsters.

Like many families served by the Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services, Margie Roman — a longtime employee of the child welfare agency — stepped up to raise her three granddaughters when the girls needed a stable home.

For many Texans, their family, friends and neighbors came through during this month’s winter storms and the catastrophes that followed. These were support systems that literally saved lives and provided comfort and light in dark moments.

The Biden administration has begun to fill in some of the key leadership posts that do not require Senate confirmation at the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), the large division of the Department of Health and Human Services that oversees child welfare and many federal assistance programs for low-income families. 

Since last March, judges and lawyers in youth and family courts across New York state have been scrambling, like judicial officers around the country, to keep their cases moving along on virtual platforms.

Michael Ambrose Sr., a longtime official at the U.S. Children’s Bureau, was remembered in Washington, D.C., earlier this month as a man who had trekked to many of the nation’s great physical heights in search of adventure, yet remained decidedly down to earth during his 82 years.

The state of California has taken its first formal action to end the medical career of Santa Clara County’s former chief pediatrician for children in foster care, 20 years after allegations surfaced that he had sexually abused boys living in his home and patients as young as 6 years old.

When Spokane’s Crosswalk teen shelter hired behavioral health counselor Kaitlyn Lee last year with money from a new state grant, part of her job was to shoot pool in the common room with the teenagers.