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 [...]
By JoANNE YOUNG / Lincoln Journal Star
Monday, Aug 25, 2008
The Legislature’s audit of the state’s personal services contracts, to determine compliance with state law, has found a number of issues with transportation service contracts that have caused concerns.
The Performance Audit Committee, which oversees the auditing process, has scheduled a public hearing [...]
By JEAN ORTIZ Associated Press Writer
The Associated Press
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - Nebraska’s new “safe-haven” law allowing parents to abandon unwanted children at hospitals with no questions asked is unique in a significant way: It goes beyond babies and potentially permits the abandonment of anyone under 19.
While lawmakers may not have intended it, [...]
BY CLARENCE MABIN / Lincoln Journal Star
Sunday, Jul 27, 2008 - 12:06:39 am CDT
At first, adopting the little boy and his two younger sisters seemed like it would be easy.
Removed by police from a filthy, mice- and cockroach-infested Lincoln home in July 2005, the children, then 4, 2 and 11 [...]
BY CLARENCE MABIN / Lincoln Journal Star
Sunday, Jul 27, 2008
The right of parents to custody of their children is a fundamental liberty protected by the U.S. Constitution. So says the nation’s highest court.
But children have rights, too, courts have held, and the challenge of the juvenile justice system often is to protect [...]
BY CLARENCE MABIN / Lincoln Journal Star
Sunday, Jul 27, 2008
A Lancaster County Juvenile Court case that involved three kids taken from an unsanitary house in 2005 concluded nearly three years later with their adoption by Jeff and Lisa Elrod.
Lancaster County prosecutors filed the initial abuse and neglect petition against the children’s [...]
BY MARTHA STODDARD
WORLD-HERALD BUREAU
Thursday July 10, 2008
LINCOLN — More Nebraska children left the state’s child welfare system than entered it during the two years since Gov. Dave Heineman issued directives aimed at reducing the number of state wards.
The governor today called the trend a major accomplishment that reversed a steady climb [...]
