Eight states are getting together for the rest of 2021 to work out the best way to help children and families weather the second year of the coronavirus pandemic with a minimum of child neglect and abuse.

Rise, a New York City-based group dedicated to giving a voice to and empowering parents involved in the child welfare system, has named two co-leaders who will take the helm in July when founder Nora McCarthy formally steps down.

Many of Arizona’s current and former youth are in line for more federal help to get them through the pandemic, the state Department of Child Safety has announced.

The change means young adults currently in foster care and former foster youth who have not yet turned 27 years old will be able to tap funds made available under a law Congress passed in December, the COVID-19 Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2020.

In a complex ruling that seems destined for the highest court in the land, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals went in several directions on the fate of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), which was passed in the 1970s at a time when between a quarter and a third of all Native children were being removed from their families. 

For over a quarter-century, Phyllis Brunson elevated the voices of marginalized young people and their families as they sought to reshape the course of their lives.

It has received very little attention, even in the Beltway news sources, but Congress has given itself the power to issue earmarks again for the fiscal 2022 budget year.

The head of Kentucky’s Juvenile Justice Department was fired last week after a months long personnel investigation into allegations that she had harassed, bullied and intimidated employees, leaving at least one in tears.

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson (R) is asking lawmakers for $18 million in next year’s budget to keep most 17-year-olds out of adult jails.

Lawmakers approved a bill making that a policy in 2018, and the law technically went into effect on Jan.

Kentucky is backing off a law it passed in the tough-on-crime 1990s under which minors age 14 or older were automatically tried on felony charges as adults if a firearm was involved in the incident.