This week Coalition for Educational Equity for Foster Youth released a Sample Local Control Accountability Plan for Foster Youth, an important tool for school districts in ensuring that California’s new school funding and accountability system lives up to its promise to end the achievement gap for foster youth. Under the new system, known as the […]
A coalition of advocates is circulating a sign-on letter calling on the California State Legislature to end the current policy of placing foster children into deep poverty. Under the current system, a relative caregiver receives a foster care benefit if the child is federally-eligible. If not, the relative caregiver may apply for the state welfare benefit
Action Needed: Sign on to End Practice of Placing Foster Children into Poverty Read More »
The Alliance celebrated the adoption of 144 Los Angeles foster children into new families on Friday, November 22 as part of National Adoption Day (NAD). In its 14th year, NAD hit an important milestone with 50,000 children officially joining their forever families as part of the event since 2000. As a NAD co-founder, the Alliance
50,000 Adopted as Part of National Adoption Day Read More »
On Thursday, November 21, the Alliance completed California’s first non-minor dependent adoption, which was made possible through extended foster care under AB 12. Since young people can now stay in foster care until age 21, they are also eligible for adoption until 21. Twenty year-old Michele, “Shelly,” was born with cerebral palsy and entered foster
Alliance Completes First-of-its-Kind Adoption Read More »
A day dedicated to giving couldn’t come at a better time. On the heels of National Adoption Day, where 4,500 children across the country joined a permanent family, we at the Alliance are more committed than ever to giving foster children everything they need to succeed in their adoptive homes. Celebrate #GivingTuesday today by making
Give Family on #GivingTuesday, Dec. 3 Read More »
Approximately 35% of children and teens enter foster care with significant oral health problems. Many children enter the foster care system with problems like bottle tooth decay, cavities and premature gum disease due to neglect and abuse. Three-year-old Christopher, whom the Alliance met through our Children’s Health and Advocacy Clinic, a medical-legal partnership with LAC
Teeth Mean a New Start for Christopher Read More »
A study conducted in California over seven years that examined the relationship between unemployment and child maltreatment was recently published, and showed rather surprising results. The study encompassed all 58 counties of California, with a special emphasis on San Mateo, covering the period from 2005 to 2012, which notably includes the years of the deep
Recent Study Links Child Maltreatment to Self-Sufficiency Gap Read More »
“The Invisible Achievement Gap,” a landmark study funded by The Stuart Foundation, was released this October. The report, which connects statewide education data to child welfare data, is titled thus because its findings show that children in the foster care system often have specialized education needs that go unrecognized and unmet, leading them to fall
Invisible Education Achievement Gap Between Foster Youth & Peers Read More »
A recently released study conducted by researchers from the Public Policy Institute of California and the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality utilized a new model, called the California Poverty Measure, to offer a more accurate and complete picture of poverty in California by taking into account factors ignored by the official U.S. Census Bureau
New Look at Official Federal Measures of Poverty Read More »
On September 18, 2013, Senator Orrin Hatch introduced S. 1518, otherwise known as the Improving Outcomes for Youth at Risk for Sex Trafficking Act of 2013. The legislation is intended to reduce time foster youth spend in congregate care such as group homes. S. 1518 includes some positive measures, such as a requirement that states
New Federal Legislation has Good Intentions, but Doesn’t Fix Group Home Problem Read More »
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