Greetings Permanency Champions,
Stories of the Week:
Video: Boy surprises Texas news anchor who helped him find adoptive parents
When Texas boy Ke’onte Cook was 10 years old, he didn’t think he’d ever find a home that would be his forever. But one beloved Dallas newswoman helped turn things around, and this week, Ke’onte brought tears to her eyes with a surprise on-air. Ke’onte was 8 years old in 2007 when Gloria Campos featured him as a child of the week – one who had already learned the golden rule.
In Their Own Words: The Curtis Family’s Story of Adoption
Current Permanency related articles:
No Child Left Behind – The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption seeks to reform how children in foster care are matched with families.
For approximately 101,000 children awaiting adoption in the foster care program nationwide, their ninth birthdays are not cause for celebration. That’s the arbitrary but powerful statistical cutoff when their chances of finding permanent homes drop precipitously. And despite the perception that adoption usually takes place at infancy, the average child in foster care is already eight. They frequently deal with developmental issues due to the neglect and abuse suffered during childhood, and according to Rita Soronen, CEO of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption (DTFA), as they age they often no longer want to be adopted, convinced it’s just another step in the vicious cycle. Each year nearly 26,000 leave the system at 18 without ever finding a family.
Focus on the Figures: Reasons for Removal from Home
Fostering Media Connections – There are many different specific reasons for the removal of a child from his or her parents, but there are three general types of maltreatment measured by child welfare agencies: general neglect, physical abuse, and sexual abuse. A recent study published in the American Journal of Public Health found that while the death rate among physically abused children is substantially higher than that of neglected children, neglected children are more likely to die of an unintentional injury than children who have been physically abused.
Wendy’s Wonderful Kids: A melancholy milestone
Rita Soronen – Anniversaries are just a little bittersweet at the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. This month, we mark 10 amazing and important years of Wendy’s Wonderful Kids, yet I am keenly aware that we have not done enough. As we honor the 4,076 adoptions that are the direct result of the work of our recruiters – people across North America who are passionate and dedicated, and who too often face overwhelming system barriers – there were 23,000 children we failed last year; 23,000 children who turned 18 and left foster care without the families we promised them.
As deadlines near, LA schools debate how to help foster youth (Includes audio)
89.3 KPCC Southern California Public Radio – L.A. Unified is responsible for 8,278 foster children’s education, about a third of the foster students statewide. Duardo said only seven employees are assigned to help them. The best students can expect is to be folded into federally-funded services offered to other types special needs students: free meals, reading and math interventions, special education. Related, “Districts will get extra funding for foster students, but state has to find them first”
There have been countless studies about foster children’s struggles in the classroom. FosterEd aims to help – by giving each child their own champion.
Annie E Casey Foundation – Over the past decade, two key federal funding sources for child welfare agencies have been shrinking. Without legislative change, these sources will continue to decline precipitously over the next ten years, providing states even less support for the needs of vulnerable children and families than they do today. Learn more about the current state of Title IV-E and Title IV-B funding.
Finding family members for foster youth
Children in foster care often become disconnected from extended family. Because engaging relatives in these children’s lives may facilitate a permanent placement with family members, child welfare practice increasingly involves relative search and engagement. Child Trends evaluated Family Finding, one frequently-used intervention, in North Carolina and found mixed results