Filed on September 23, 2008
Not designated for permanent publication
A-08-341
SUMMARY: The filing of an original petition in juvenile confers jurisdiction on the juvenile court; therefore, any jurisdictional defect in transferring the case from the district court is moot. Termination of the father’s parental rights was in the child’s best interest because the child’s special needs [...]

By Paula Rhoden, The Daily Courier
Monday, September 22, 2008
PRESCOTT - Arizona Child Protective Services’ began the Family to Family Team Decision Making program to give children a safety net as they enter the child welfare system.
With it already working in other Arizona counties, CPS began the program in western Yavapai County Sept. 22.
CPS District [...]

BY NANCY HICKS / Lincoln Journal Star
Sunday, Sep 21, 2008
Nebraska made the national news this week after two boys — a 15-year-old and a 11-year-old —became the first to be legally abandoned under the state’s new safe haven law.
And on Saturday a 13-year-old girl was abandoned.
In the first two cases, the guardians, an [...]

BY JoANNE YOUNG / Lincoln Journal Star
Friday, Sep 19, 2008
The state’s reliance on private companies to transport foster children to appointments and visitations has resulted in significant problems and caused children harm, the Foster Care Review Board director told a panel of senators Friday.
Carol Stitt and other review board staff members testified before the Legislature’s [...]

September 19, 2008
BY MICHAELA SAUNDERS
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
Early investments can yield the most return.
That’s why the Building Bright Futures effort plans to start its work with low-income pregnant women by providing in-home parenting classes and money for their children to attend high-quality child care centers.
The hope is that all 10,000 babies born in Douglas and Sarpy [...]

By MELISSA LEE / Lincoln Journal Star
Tuesday, Sep 16, 2008
Children don’t vote.
They don’t contribute to political campaigns.
They don’t lobby.
So when government budgets need to be trimmed, Sarah Ann Lewis fears, children’s programs too often are the first to take a hit.
Lewis, policy coordinator for Voices for Children in Nebraska, wants that to change.
“Politicians need to [...]

By JoANNE YOUNG / Lincoln Journal Star
Tuesday, Sep 16, 2008
If you’re at the end of your rope with your child’s behavioral problems, you have alternatives to the safe haven solution.
That’s what state officials and private agency heads said over and over after two youths — a 15-year-old in Lincoln, an 11-year-old in Omaha — were [...]