- New child welfare audit says Oregon can do more to reunite parents and kids in foster care, By Michelle Cole, April 24, 2012, The Oregonian: “While Oregon child welfare caseworkers do better than the national average in seeing that children taken into state foster care are returned to their parents, a new audit also finds caseworkers often do not include parents in critical discussions concerning their families and have little time to ensure meaningful visits between parents and kids. Overall, the 28-page report portrays a system under stress. Overworked child welfare staff do not get much help from the central office in prioritizing their work. Parents were unable to get addiction treatment, mental health care or other services they needed before they could bring their kids back home…”
- If fewer kids are in D.C. foster care, why isn’t agency’s budget decreasing?, By Justin Moyer, April 24, 2012, Washington Post: “The number of children in the District’s child welfare system is continuing to drop, prompting officials to take a fresh look at how the city spends its $265 million child welfare budget. Across the region and across the country, social service agencies are seeing such declines, though the implications are especially significant for the District, which has a long history of child welfare crises. No single factor explains the drop in the District, but experts believe that the city’s changing demographics and renewed emphasis on keeping troubled families together are driving the trend. According to the D.C. Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA), the number of children it supervises has fallen to 3,400 from 4,654 in early 2009, a change of almost 30 percent…”
Daily Archives: April 24, 2012
Columbia Daily Tribune Series on Poverty
The Price of Poverty: An occasional series on poverty in Boone County, Series homepage, Columbia Daily Tribune:
- Lunch program gives some a hand up, By Catherine Martin, April 23, 2012, Columbia Daily Tribune: “When Dewanna Miller got sick after having surgery in 2009, things got rough for her and her three children. She was in the hospital for three months and was unable to work until January of this year, when she returned to work at Macy’s. There were a lot of challenges and frustration, she said, and without support from her family and the public school system, Miller said she doesn’t know whether she could have pulled through…”
- Spending grows, shifts in fight on poverty, with mixed results, By Jodie Jackson Jr., Columbia Daily Tribune: “As spending increases for programs aimed at battling poverty in Boone County, reaching an estimated $300 million in 2010, the number of residents in poverty also continues to climb. The struggle to stem that tide has social service leaders looking to tackle the problem at its roots, with a focus on kids and education. ‘We have thrown billions of dollars to poverty, and we’re in worse shape than ever,’ said Peggy Kirkpatrick, executive director of the Food Bank for Central & Northeast Missouri. ‘Our Band-Aid has gotten about as big as it can get.’ Boone County’s population grew by 20 percent from 2000 to 2010, while the number of children age 18 and under in poverty increased by 49 percent during that time. The county’s overall poverty rate is 18.4 percent. The current local push-back against poverty is largely a response to the cost of providing services, a total that reached an estimated $300 million in 2010 for Boone County, including social service and government programs…”