New data: Many fewer US kids in foster care, By David Crary (AP), August 31, 2010, Washington Post: “The number of U.S. children in foster care has dropped 8 percent in just one year, and more than 20 percent in the past decade, according to new federal figures underscoring the impact of widespread reforms. The drop, hailed by child-welfare advocates, is due largely to a shift in the policies and practices of state and county child welfare agencies. Many have been shortening stays in foster care, speeding up adoptions and expanding preventive support for troubled families so more children avoid being removed from their homes in the first place. The new figures, released Tuesday by the Department of Health and Human Services, show there were 423,773 children in foster care as of Sept. 30. That’s down from 460,416 a year earlier and from more than 540,000 a decade ago…”

Kentucky kids’ status worsens, report says, By Deborah Yetter, August 31, 2010, Louisville Courier-Journal: “The nation’s economic problems continue to make life harder for Kentucky’s youngest residents, according to a new report by Kentucky Youth Advocates. ‘That should ring an alarm bell for everyone,’ said Terry Brooks, executive director of the non-profit research and advocacy group. ‘It calls for some action.’ The 2010 annual ‘Kentucky Kids Count’ report - released Tuesday - noted that unemployment in Kentucky reached 10.5 percent last year, the state’s highest rate since 1983. Almost one-third of the state’s families in which a parent is employed are considered low-income, or ‘working poor’ and nearly one-fourth of Kentucky children - 23 percent - were living in poverty in 2008, the report found.Kentucky Kids Count is a more detailed follow-up to the national ‘Kids Count’ produced by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, which ranks all states on basic measures of child well-being. Kentucky ranked 40th and Indiana 33rd in this year’s report, released in late July…”

Phone troubles hang up Texas welfare requests, By Robert T. Garrett, August 31, 2010, Dallas Morning News: “Even as Texas spends hundreds of millions to hire more workers to process welfare applications, it has skimped on replacing obsolete phone systems at more than 300 offices. At some, phones are more than two decades old and prone to ‘port failures’ in which callers hear a ring, but no line actually rings in the office, officials said. Also, many newly hired workers do not have voicemail. Experienced workers and supervisors do, but they complain of occasional malfunctions, which can make entire offices unreachable. The situation has added frustration and complications for Texans applying for benefits as the economy sags…”

Milwaukee County evictions fell with stimulus, study shows, By Georgia Pabst, August 30, 2010, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “With a 2-year-old and a baby on the way, Jenny Furne said she started to worry that she and her growing family would be homeless. She said she moved to Milwaukee last year from another state to escape from a domestic violence situation and found a job in sales. But after she lost her job and couldn’t find another one, she fell a month behind in the rent on her north side apartment. Although she signed up for W-2, the state’s welfare-to-work program, she initially received a partial payment of $300, not enough to cover her rent of $510 a month. ‘Two weeks before having my baby, I got an eviction notice,’ said Furne, 24. ‘I was freaking out because I didn’t know if I would have a home to come back to with the baby.’ She went to Community Advocates and explained her predicament. Using federal stimulus money designed to stem evictions and prevent homelessness, the agency paid the $510 rent owed, buying Furne the time she needed to get her W-2 check and get on track. Furne isn’t the only one who has been helped from the brink of homelessness. According to a Harvard University study that looked at local eviction records, the influx of federal stimulus money to help stem homelessness coincided with 836 fewer evictions filed in Milwaukee County from August 2009 to March 2010, compared with the same period the previous year…”