Sandy Santana speaks about the growing number of children entering foster care due to the opioid epidemic: “In those states that have been most affected by the opioid crisis, they are really, really struggling,” says Sandy Santana, executive director of Children’s Rights. “Their foster care systems are reeling.”
“Children are entering foster care because their parents are addicted to opioids, and the epidemic is only getting worse,” writes Sandy Santana in this op-ed in USA Today.
Alyssa, former plaintiff in Children’s Rights’ lawsuit in Texas, is profiled in this article. “For too many of the thousands of young Texans in foster care, the march of time…means potential sexual and physical abuse. It means aging out of foster care and entering the adult world lost, broken and alone.
Should caseworkers collect data about the sexual orientation of children in foster care? Sandy Santana, executive director of Children’s Rights, speaks out against the overall lack of legal guards in many states for LGBTQ youth in care.
Harry Frischer, lead counsel for Children’s Rights, co-authored this op-ed about the need for legal action to protect children in Arizona’s foster care system.
Paul Yetter, co-counsel with Children’s Rights in our lawsuit on behalf of children in Texas foster care, is quoted in this article: “The positive news is that the state has allocated a significant amount of funding for foster care. The problem is that the state does not have a comprehensive plan to fix the system.”
A proposed law would make it harder to gather data surrounding sex trafficking. Elizabeth Pitman Gretter, senior attorney at Children’s Rights, advocated for the need to collect this data. “It’s such critical information and we are already well-past the time where the states should be able to do it and should be doing it.”
Texas has bought more time to avoid obeying a federal judge’s foster care ruling, reports Dallas News in this article about Children’s Rights lawsuit in Texas.
The ACLU headed a lawsuit that led to Ms. L’s release on March 6 but the little girl remains in detention, said Sandy Santana, executive director of Children’s Rights, one of 15 groups that filed an amicus brief in the suit.
A new bill that recently passed the state Senate would deprive children of loving families with a particular target on potential LGBTQ foster and adoptive parents, write Christina Wilson Remlin, lead counsel for Children’s Rights.
