Press Releases
New Jersey Must Maintain Focus on Child Welfare Reform to Continue Important Progress for Abused and Neglected Kids
NEWARK, NJ — The New Jersey Department of Children and Families (DCF) continues to produce vital improvements in the care and protection it provides abused and neglected children, according to a new progress report released today on a long-running effort to reform the state’s once-failing child welfare system under a federal court order secured by […]
December 24, 2009Connecticut Backslides on Child Welfare Reform, Fails to Provide Adequate Services to Abused and Neglected Kids
HARTFORD, CT — Just two weeks after the national advocacy organization Children’s Rights took legal action to stop Connecticut officials from shuttering critical foster care prevention services for thousands of vulnerable children statewide, a new progress report on a long-running, court-ordered effort to reform the entire state child welfare system shows Connecticut’s performance headed in […]
December 9, 2009Child Welfare Advocates Take Legal Action in Connecticut to Block Closure of Key Foster Care Prevention Program
HARTFORD, CT — A successful and widely used program aimed at keeping vulnerable families together — and their children out of foster care — will be shuttered if recent spending reductions made unilaterally by Connecticut Governor Jodi Rell are allowed to stand, according to a motion filed in federal court late last night by the […]
November 11, 2009Child Welfare Experts Blast Oklahoma Department of Human Services in New Reports on Kids’ Safety in Foster Care
TULSA, OK — “If you don’t beat them down, they will run all over you.” So says a foster parent quoted in two new reports by independent child welfare experts linking failures throughout the Oklahoma Department of Human Services (DHS) with the often horrific abuse and neglect endured by children in state custody, filed today […]
November 10, 2009New Report Recommends Widespread Reforms to Bring New York City Foster Kids Home Faster to Permanent Families
NEW YORK CITY – An in-depth new study of the New York City child welfare system, conducted by the national advocacy group Children’s Rights in collaboration with the New York City Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) and the Legal Aid Society Juvenile Rights Practice (JRP), has brought together an unprecedented partnership in an effort to […]
November 9, 2009Children’s Rights Renews Challenge to Tennessee Law Unconstitutionally Interfering with Juvenile Court Hearings
NASHVILLE, TN — Five children recently taken into the Tennessee child welfare system on allegations of neglect face an imminent risk of harm due to a new state law aimed at influencing the decisions of juvenile court judges, according to a new challenge to the law filed today on behalf of the children by the […]
November 2, 2009Atlanta County Quickens Reform of Legal Representation for Kids in Foster Care
ATLANTA, GA — Fulton County (metro Atlanta) has significantly sped its progress toward completing a groundbreaking, court-ordered effort spurred by Children’s Rights to reform its system of legal representation for abused and neglected children in juvenile court, according to a progress report filed today — and the end of federal court oversight may be within […]
October 14, 2009Rhode Island Kids’ Right to Challenge Poor Foster Care Treatment in Federal Court Well-Established, Advocates Say
BOSTON, MA — Abused and neglected children in the custody of the dysfunctional Rhode Island child welfare system have a well-established right to challenge their poor treatment in federal court, say state and national child welfare advocates seeking to reinstate a lawsuit brought on the children’s behalf to reform the system — and the state […]
October 8, 2009Tennessee Judges Oppose Law Interfering with Children’s Juvenile Court Hearings
NASHVILLE, TN — Judges presiding over life-altering juvenile and family court hearings in Tennessee say a new state law aimed at pressuring them to reduce the number of children they commit to foster care violates children’s constitutional rights and will erode public confidence in the integrity of the judicial process if a federal judge now […]
September 30, 2009Kids Seeing Benefits One Year into Michigan Reforms, But Strong Leadership Needed to Ensure Continued Progress
DETROIT, MI — One year into a massive effort to reform the troubled Michigan child welfare system under a federal court order secured by Children’s Rights, a new progress report shows that the state has begun to break a logjam that has kept nearly 10,000 children in foster care waiting years to return home — […]