Connecting IDEA & Fostering Connections Act for Children with Disabilities

Children with disabilities have specific rights under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and other federal laws which require that children with disabilities receive special help to succeed in school. In addition, children in foster care are entitled to school stability under the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act (Fostering Connections Act). Please see the new issue brief authored by the Legal Center for Foster Care and Education - How the IDEA and the Fostering Connections Act Can Work Together to Ensure School Stability and Seamless Transitions for Children with Disabilities in the Child Welfare System.  (New Report - 2012)

Click for the report.

Information Sharing Certificate Program

The Center for Juvenile Justice Reform at Georgetown University's Public Policy Institute, in partnership with the Juvenile Law Center, has announced the inaugural Information Sharing Certificate Program. This program, supported with funding from the MacArthur Foundation's Models for Change Initiative, is designed to enable leaders in the juvenile justice, child welfare, education, behavioral health and other child serving fields to overcome information sharing challenges that prevent the communication and coordination that is necessary to more fully serve youth known across multiple systems of care. Upon completion of the intensive three-day learning experience, participants apply the knowledge they gain through the development and implementation of a Capstone Project-an action agenda they undertake in their organization/community to initiate or enhance information sharing efforts. To accelerate these efforts, it is strongly encouraged that those interested in attending form a team from their jurisdiction to apply to the program.

Faculty for the program is comprised of information sharing, juvenile justice and child welfare subject matter experts from across the country who will deliver a curriculum designed to increase participants' ability to solve real-life problems when they return home. Thanks to the MacArthur Foundation, tuition subsidies are available for those with financial need.

Information Sharing Certificate Program  October 1-4, 2012, Washington, DC        Application Deadline: June 28, 2012

For more information and to apply, please visit http://cjjr.georgetown.edu and click on "Certificate Programs" or email CJJR at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Link to Louisiana Children's Cabinet's 2012 General Session list of bills affecting children.

LIST

National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges Briefing: Outcomes for Children of Abuse

March 2, 2012

YouTube Video of Briefing

Psychotropic Medication and Children in Foster Care: Tips for Advocates and Judges

 The ABA Center on Children and the Law is pleased to announce that its latest Practice & Policy Brief -- Psychotropic Medication and Children in Foster Care: Tips for Advocates and Judges -- is now available from the Child Welfare Information Gateway in both hard copy and pdf versions.  (Listed under Research and Reports)  January 30, 2012

 Other ABA Practice & Policy Briefs address:

• Advocating for Very Young Children in Dependency Proceedings: The Hallmarks of Effective, Ethical Representation (2010) 
• Visitation with Infants and Toddlers in Foster Care: What Judges and Attorneys Need to Know (2007) 
• Healing the Youngest Children: Model Court-Community Partnerships (2007)

 Healthy Beginnings, Healthy Futures: A Judge's Guide (2009), produced in collaboration with the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges and Zero to Three, explores infant brain development, caregiver attachment, medical and mental health, and permanency planning strategies to ensure the health and well-being of very young children who enter the child welfare system.
 
All can be downloaded from the Center's website.

Free hard copies and bulk orders of the Practice & Policy Briefs are available through Shante Bullock at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . 

Free hard copies of Healthy Beginnings are available from the ABA Service Center at 800-285-2221 (ask for product code 3490003B; shipping and taxes apply). 

Secondary Traumatic Stress: A Fact Sheet for Child-Serving Professionals
This fact sheet from The National Child Traumatic Stress Network details a concise overview of secondary traumatic stress and its potential impact on child-serving professionals; outlines options for assessment, prevention, and intervention relevant to secondary stress; and describes the elements necessary for transforming child-serving organizations and agencies into systems that also support worker resiliency. (2011)

PDF File

OJJDP Launches DMC Virtual Resource Center

 The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) has launched the Disproportionate Minority Contact (DMC) Virtual Resource Center. This online center provides DMC coordinators, state advisory group members, and other juvenile justice professionals with tools and resources to support their state and local DMC efforts.

The Web site also provides networking opportunities for users to exchange data and information, share DMC training materials, and notify others about upcoming conferences, events, and current policies, practices, and procedures. Regular Web site spotlights will feature state and local DMC delinquency prevention and systems improvement activities.

 Resources:

 To visit the DMC Virtual Resource Center, click here.

 To read a spotlight on a state’s DMC efforts, click here.

Child Abuse and Neglect Cost the United States $124 Billion -
Rivals cost of other high profile public health problems

The total lifetime estimated financial costs associated with just one year of confirmed cases of child maltreatment (physical abuse, sexual abuse, psychological abuse and neglect) is approximately $124 billion, according to a report released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, published in Child Abuse and Neglect, The International Journal. (February 1, 2012)

The study looked at confirmed child maltreatment cases, 1,740 fatal and 579,000 non-fatal, for a 12-month period. Additional findings show:

• The estimated average lifetime cost per death is about $1.3 million, almost all of it money the child would have earned over a lifetime if she or he had lived:
  • $14,100 in medical costs
  • $1,258,800 in productivity losses
•  The estimated average lifetime cost per victim of nonfatal child maltreatment is $210,012, including:
  o    $32,648 in childhood health care costs
  o    $10,530 in adult medical costs
  o    $144,360 in productivity losses
  o    $7,728 in child welfare costs
  o    $6,747 in criminal justice costs
  o    $7,999 in special education costs

The costs associated with every victim of child maltreatment who lives is comparable to other costly health conditions such as stroke, which has a lifetime cost per person estimated at $159,846 or type 2 diabetes, which is estimated between $181,000 and $253,000.

Child maltreatment can also be linked to many emotional, behavioral, and physical health problems. Associated emotional and behavioral problems include aggression, conduct disorder, delinquency, antisocial behavior, substance abuse, intimate partner violence, teenage pregnancy, anxiety, depression, and suicide.

A promising array of prevention and response programs have great potential to reduce child maltreatment. Given the substantial economic burden of child maltreatment, the benefits of prevention will likely outweigh the costs for effective programs.

Learn More
•         View this report
•         CDC’s Division of Violence Prevention 
•         CDC’s Child Maltreatment Prevention Work 
•         Child Abuse and Neglect, The International Journal 

Just Released: America’s Youngest Outcasts 2010

 America’s Youngest Outcasts 2010 updates a previous report created by The National Center on Family Homelessness titled America’s Youngest Outcasts: State Report Card on Child Homelessness. Our earlier report, based on 2006 data about the extent of the problem, was itself an update of a landmark study we issued in 1999 that provided the first comprehensive profile of America’s homeless children and families.

America’s Youngest Outcasts 2010 documents the numbers of homeless children in every state, their well-being, the risk for child homelessness, and state level planning and policy activities. Using findings from numerous sources that include well-established national data sets as well as our own research, we rank the states in each of four domains and then develop a composite of these domains to rank the states from 1 (best) to 50 (worst).

America’s Youngest Outcasts 2010 reports the following:

• 1.6 million American children, or one in 45 children, are homeless in a year.
• This equates to more than 30,000 children each week, and more than 4,400 each day.
• Children experiencing homelessness suffer from hunger, poor physical and emotional health, and missed educational opportunities.
• A majority of these children have limited educational proficiency in math and reading.
• Not surprisingly, the risks for child homelessness—such as extreme poverty and worst case housing needs—have worsened with the economic recession, even though the total housing capacity for families increased by more than 15,000 units in the past four years, primarily due to the federal Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program (HPRP).
• Despite this bleak picture, planning and policy activities to support the growth and development of these vulnerable children remain limited. Sixteen states have done no planning related to child homelessness, and only seven states have extensive plans.

Released January, 2012.

PDF File

2nd Edition :  Together We Can Practice Toolkit - February 2012

The next edition of the TWC Practice Toolkit includes articles on:

• Louisiana Coordinated System of Care - An Update and Overview
• Family Engagement: The Benefits of Family Engagement - Ways to Achieve Meaningful Engagement
• Federal ICWA Checklist
• Child Welfare Outcomes: From Endpoints to Beginning Pathways

It also includes new resources:

• NRCPFC Organizational Self-Study on Educational Stability
• Organizational Self-Study on Parent-Child and Sibling Visits
• Psychotropic Medication and Children in Foster Care: Tips for Advocates and Judges
• Bringing Back the Dads: Changing Practices in Child Welfare Systems
• The Adoption Law Handbook
• Educational Well-being: Court Outcome Measures for Children in Foster Care
• LINKS AND MORE!

 Click Here

America’s Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being - 2011 Report Released

A new report compiled by the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics. America’s Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2011 is a compendium of indicators depicting both the promises and the challenges confronting our Nation’s young people. The report, the 15th in an ongoing series, presents 41 key indicators on important aspects of children’s lives.

PDF File