Sara, an intern in a child protection unit at a county here in Minnesota, writes about issues pertaining to caseload management, worker turnover, and client outcomes, specifically in terms of foster care re-entry, based on her observations in her field placement. As a child protection intern in a large County, I have seen how difficult [...]
Today's guest blogger is Jodie Glaspie. The article "Protecting foster kids from sex trafficking" by Thanh Tan, focuses on foster kids being more susceptible to being coerced by sex traffickers into prostitution. Every month, more than 100 kids in Washington run away from foster care. In Washington’s King County at least 500 minors work in [...]
Today's guest blogger is G Lee Xiong. The journal article, "Who is willing to foster children with disabilities?" was written by John G. Orme, Donna J. Cherry, and Taylor E. Krcek, and published through the Journal of Public Child Welfare in December of 2013. These researchers conducted a study to extend results from the 1980 [...]
Today's guest blogger in the Permanency and Adoption series is Caitlin Williams Franko. USA Today published an article written by Wendy Koch in January 2013 with the title “USA faces critical adoption shortage: Russian ban adds to record-low numbers”. The article highlights the decreasing number of international adoptions and the decreasing number of children available [...]
One of the most talked about policies to be voted on in the Minnesota Legislature this year is HF92/SF3, the bill to raise the state minimum wage. Minnesota's current minimum wage is one of the lowest in the country, set at $6.15/hour. Under the bill's proposed mandates HF92 would raise the minimum wage to $9.50/hour [...]
Shavon blogs about working with with her field instructor, Faith Jaspersen, at Family Alternatives. MSW Title IV-E Child Welfare Student: Shavon Swain Field Instructor: Faith Jaspersen Field Site: Family Alternatives "Working with Faith and her team at Family Alternatives has been an amazing learning experience. Faith has been generous with her knowledge and very supportive [...]
On March 4, President Obama released his budget for fiscal year 2015. In sum, the budget allocates $77.1 billion to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which is $0.8 billion less than the 2014 enacted level. Child welfare-related highlights of the presidential budget are listed below. Medicaid Demonstration Project for Youth in [...]
On February 4th, 2014 the Minnesota Senate Committee on Health, Human Services and Housing met with Dr. Edward Ehlinger, the Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH), and other members of the community to discuss the health disparities gap that persists in Minnesota and programs that can help alleviate these disparities. (Watch the hearing [...]
