Patrice Ismael-Gantt knew she always wanted to foster kids. When she was a special education teacher and intensive in-home therapist, she spent a lot of time with children in dire home situations. “You see so many cases where you’re in these situations where you can’t help because you’re not their legal guardian,” Ismael-Gantt said. “And […]
Since the start of the pandemic, kids have been some of the most affected – cut off from school, friends and the normal rhythms of childhood. The unfortunate result has been a national surge in childhood anxiety and depression. Children in foster care have been hit especially hard, often being forced to relocate multiple times, […]
Christina Remlin, the lead counsel for Children’s Rights, helps break down the decision in the recent Supreme Court case over the right of faith-based child welfare providers to choose who they will work with based on religious beliefs.
Christina Wilson Remlin with the child welfare organization Children’s Rights, said the decision Thursday underscored the need for a congressional response. “The Supreme Court’s 9-0 ruling is based on narrow grounds limited to the facts of this case,” she said. But it “drives home why we need to pass federal legislation to provide consistent anti-discrimination protections […]
In a widely watched case focused on the rights of religious groups to discriminate in child welfare work, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a Philadelphia service provider can continue to restrict its home studies for foster care and adoption to only those couples meeting traditional heterosexual standards. Christina Remlin, lead counsel for the […]
“We were very concerned to read about some of the safety issues that are still persisting, some of them worsening [in] unlicensed relative homes and in the child caring institutions, or group home facilities,” said Children’s Rights attorney Elizabeth Pitman Gretter. “[The state] is really struggling to perform some of those basic safety checks and to oversee […]
Ma’Khia Bryant was shot and killed by a Columbus police officer during an altercation at the foster home where she was living. While an investigation is still underway, one thing we do know is that the system responsible for keeping the 16-year-old safe failed her in critical ways. Remembered by family and teachers as a quiet, diligent, […]
Make no mistake—the foster care system is broken. There is a nationwide shortage of foster parents. Meanwhile, child poverty, a lack of resources for grandparents and kinship care providers, and barriers to affordable housing and quality mental health services all increase the likelihood of child welfare involvement. Data show that young Black Americans are more […]
Paula Bryant had longed to bring her children home after they spent years in the custody of the foster care system. And when one of her daughters, 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant, was fatally shot by a Columbus police officer April 20 outside the foster home where she was staying on the Southeast Side, it left Bryant […]
“The unjust separation of Black children from their families causes lasting harm to their development and well-being and is part of a broader legacy of institutional racism that shapes our society,” Shereen White, senior staff attorney at Children’s Rights, stated in a press release. White went on to state that too often poverty and economic […]
