Through the Eyes of the Child Initiative

It's hard turning 18 — moving out, finding a job, going to college. But many foster children have to do it by themselves, without the lifeline to parents and home that helps many teens ease into independence. A major report out Wednesday says that many former foster kids have a tough time out on their own. When they age out of the system, they're more likely than their peers to end up in jail, homeless or pregnant. They're also less likely to have a job or go to college. [...]
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Only half the youths who had turned 18 and “aged out” of foster care were employed by their mid-20s. Six in 10 men had been convicted of a crime, and three in four women, many of them with children of their own, were receiving some form of public assistance. Only six in 100 had completed even a community college degree. The dismal outlook for youths who are thrust into a shaky adulthood from the foster care system — now numbering some 30,000 annually — has been documented with new precision by a long-term study released Wednesday, the largest to follow such children over many years. [...]
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Molly Montag Sioux City Journal The Iowa Court of Appeals on Wednesday reversed a Woodbury County District Court decision that placed three children in tribal custody, ruling that parts of the Iowa Indian Child Welfare Act are unconstitutional. The appeals court said in its ruling those portions of the law are unconstitutional because they do not allow the children to object to the transfer of their welfare cases from the state of Iowa to the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska. [...]
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By ERIK ECKHOLM The New York Times ST. LOUIS — After a day of knocking on doors chasing fleeting leads, Carlos Lopez and his partner finally heard welcome words: Yes, a resident confirmed, the man they were seeking lived in this house and would be home that evening. [...]
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By DAVID KLEPPER
The Star’s Topeka correspondent
TOPEKA | Legislation to end Kansas’ privatized foster care system is the latest volley from lawmakers who say the state lacks oversight over the contractors managing such child welfare services.
Dozens of parents who lost custody of their children have complained to lawmakers in recent weeks that the state and its [...]

WASHINGTON — Senator Chuck Grassley today announced the formation of a new Senate Caucus on Foster Youth, which he will co-chair with Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana.
Three young Iowans who have been in and out of the foster care system and now are actively involved in helping other kids who’ve “aged out” participated in today’s [...]

By Liz Kellar
Staff Writer
It’s called emancipation, but for many foster children who age out of the system at 18 or 19, that “freedom from slavery” is more like being thrown into the deep end.
Each year in California, approximately 4,200 young adults exit foster care when they turn 18. Deemed to be adults by the state, [...]

Ed Tibbetts
Proposed state budget cuts would slice state payments to foster and adoptive parents by 5 percent.
People who take in kids from the state’s child welfare system aren’t motivated by money, state officials and others say. Still, the reductions in maintenance payments could affect their willingness to continue.
“At some point, each individual family has to [...]

Written by SU-JIN YIM
, The Oregonian
OREGON CITY, Ore. (AP) – It’s easy to swoop past the fenced facility on tree-lined Clackamas River Road as the pavement bends and curves along the winding river.
Advocates hope it will be harder to miss the import of what Cedar Bough does for Native American youths in Oregon, and [...]

Second Edition State-By-State Report Card Shows Improving Grades in Some States; Most Leave Children’s Voices Muted in Legal Proceedings That Decide Their Fate
Stronger State/Federal Laws Needed
News Conference Today At 1pm (EDT), U.S. Capitol Building - Room H-137
WASHINGTON, Oct. 15 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Most U.S. states do not adequately protect the rights of abused and neglected children, [...]