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Articles by Emma Brown-Bernstein
Engagement With Remote Learning Alarmingly Low In New York City
Amid a fresh wave of coronavirus infections washing over New York City — a development that has reversed the city’s halting efforts to slowly ease more students back into the classroom — comes a new report finding that thousands of students “failed to connect” at all with remote learning opportunities last spring. And who were the students most likely to struggle?
Family First Services Can Be Delivered Remotely During Pandemic
The Family First Act was signed into law in February 2018, and mostly took effect in October 2019. The U.S. Children’s Bureau notified state and local child welfare leaders this week that newly funded services under the Family First Prevention Services Act can be delivered remotely for the duration of the coronavirus pandemic.
New York Lawmaker Pushes City to Move on Youth Vouchers for Rentals
New York City Council member Stephen Levin (D) of Brooklyn is pushing forhousing vouchers for young adults leaving foster care or the runaway and homeless youth shelter system.
Disabled Parents Gain 'Landmark' Win in Massachusetts Settlement
Massachusetts must stop its yearslong practice of using “unsupported stereotypes” to justify taking away the children of parents with disabilities, under a settlement that the U.S. Justice Department said should serve as a warning to other states. Crest of the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families.
Conversion Therapy Inches Controversy Closer to U.S. Supreme Court
A federal appellate court last week struck down local bans in Florida on psychotherapy aimed at changing the sexual identity or orientation of minors. The ruling increases the odds of the “conversion therapy” issue ending up in the U.S. Supreme Court because other federal judicial circuits in California and elsewhere have ruled the opposite way on the issue. In those decisions, judges said they were convinced by the results of multiple psychological studies finding the therapy harmful to kids.
Federal Roundtables Find Foster Youth Feeling Supported, But Uncertain
Over the fall months, leadership at the Children’s Bureau held 12 roundtable discussions with current and former foster youth around the country, aiming to hear directly from the source about how the coronavirus pandemic was impacting their lives. Last week, the bureau’s associate commissioner, Jerry Milner, sent a letter to state child welfare directors that quickly summarized the broader themes of what he and his team heard at the roundtables, both good and bad.
Child Welfare Must Face History In Order To Get Past It
I have been thinking a lot lately about James Baldwin’s wise assertion that “People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them.” History is deeply embedded in the child welfare system. Courts and stakeholders often rely on a family’s history to determine the current level of threat to children. They look at “historical documents:” court orders, prior child protection system (CPS) reports and prior evaluations.
Diagnosis: Poverty, Prognosis: Poor
I have heard it said many times that we – “we” being the child welfare system – do not remove children because their parents are poor. I have heard it at conferences, at stakeholder meetings and in conversations with colleagues. But I think it’s time we get one thing straight: we do most definitely remove children because their parents are poor. Both as a society and as a system, we dislike poor people and we especially dislike poor parents.
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