Press Releases
Milwaukee Foster Parent Recruitment Plan Calls for Better Support & Treatment — and 250 New Families Per Year
MILWAUKEE, WI — Child welfare reform advocates from Children’s Rights today called upon the Bureau of Milwaukee Child Welfare (BMCW) to move quickly in implementing a new plan developed by independent experts for recruiting 610 additional foster homes needed to address a severe, ongoing shortage. The new “Recruitment and Retention Plan for Milwaukee County” (PDF), […]
August 10, 2009Advocates Appeal Rhode Island Decision Barring Children from Seeking Child Welfare Reform in Federal Court
BOSTON, MA — Asserting that a federal court in Rhode Island erroneously blocked abused and neglected children’s access to the court in dismissing a class action brought on their behalf to reform the state’s failing child welfare system, Rhode Island Child Advocate Jametta Alston, the national advocacy organization Children’s Rights, and local and national co-counsel […]
June 20, 2009Experts in Michigan Reforms Call For $4M Investment in Strengthening Families and Helping Kids out of Foster Care
DETROIT, MI — New recommendations by the independent national experts monitoring sweeping court-ordered child welfare reforms in Michigan call for the state to devote $4 million in new funding to programs aimed at keeping vulnerable families together, moving children out of foster care institutions and into permanent families, and providing transitional services and housing for […]
June 19, 2009Atlanta Child Welfare System Posts Best Results to Date in Court-Ordered Reform Effort
ATLANTA, GA — The Atlanta child welfare system performed better in the second half of 2008 than ever before in implementing widespread reforms required under a federal court order secured by Children’s Rights, according to a new progress report, keeping abused and neglected children safer in foster care and acting faster to return children who […]
June 8, 2009After Slow Start, Court-Ordered Child Welfare Reforms Underway in Mississippi
JACKSON, MS — The Mississippi Department of Family and Children’s Services ended the first period of a massive court-ordered effort to reform its child welfare system having reached few of the required first-year benchmarks for improvement, according to a new report issued late Friday by a court-appointed monitor — but the agency is now well-positioned […]
June 1, 2009Hundreds More Milwaukee Foster Homes Needed, Says New Expert Assessment in Child Welfare Reform Effort
MILWAUKEE, WI — The Bureau of Milwaukee Child Welfare (BMCW) must recruit nearly six hundred more foster families to keep the abused and neglected children in its custody from being placed in inappropriate and unstable foster homes, according to a new study released today by an independent expert contracted by BMCW as part of a long-running […]
May 9, 2009New Report: District of Columbia Still Failing to Provide Many Key Child Welfare Services
WASHINGTON, DC — The District of Columbia continues to provide inadequate care and services to the District’s abused and neglected children and vulnerable families, according to a new report released today, falling short of 42 benchmarks for reforming its dysfunctional child welfare system under federal court orders secured by Children’s Rights. The report (PDF) was […]
April 27, 2009Better Results for Children as New Jersey Completes First Phase of Child Welfare Reforms
NEWARK, NJ — New Jersey has successfully completed the first phase of a massive child welfare reform effort mandated by the settlement of a federal class action brought by Children’s Rights, according to a report released today by the independent monitor in the case — and the state’s abused and neglected children and at-risk families are […]
March 30, 2009Groundbreaking Reform Effort Dramatically Improves System of Legal Representation for Atlanta Foster Children
ATLANTA, GA — Under a court order secured by Children’s Rights in a landmark child welfare reform class action, Fulton County (metro Atlanta) has significantly increased the number of Child Advocate Attorneys assigned to represent abused and neglected children in juvenile court proceedings — and dramatically reduced the unacceptably high caseloads that previously prevented attorneys […]
March 26, 2009Connecticut Successfully Implementing First Steps of Plan to Fix Child Welfare Problems
HARTFORD, CT — Connecticut’s Department of Children and Families has cleared a longstanding backlog of over 1,000 children in foster care awaiting required health check-ups and dramatically improved its efforts to assess and plan for the services and treatment needed by abused and neglected children, according to a new report trackingDCF’s progress in implementing sweeping […]