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Book Review – Wards of the State
Claudia Rowe’s new book Wards of the State is a powerful look at the child welfare system across the country with a focus on Washington State. Her main argument is that the system creates “the foster care to prison pipeline”. She’s not wrong. Her basic premise is that foster care is bad for kids due…
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Discussion with Author David Ambroz
I’m sitting down with author and former foster child David Ambroz to discuss his memoir A Place Called Home. Thursday December 1st 7-8 PM at Elliot Bay Books on Capitol Hill in Seattle. 1521 10th Ave. He describes homelessness, foster care, and the struggles his mom goes through. The two of us will talk a…
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Black History Month
February is Black History Month. As a late-stage boomer, I got almost none of this history in school, despite growing up in a majority Black city (Philadelphia) and a big academic focus on American History in my youth. I’ve tried to make up for this appalling lack of knowledge in the past few years by…
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Update on nondiscrimination protections for children and youth in Washington
On February 2nd I wrote about the former president’s HHS agency leaders filing a rule that removed protections for LGBTQ children and youth and how Washington was not affected, as we had strong state protections. The order has now been blocked by both the Biden administration and the courts. From the American Public Human Services…
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Missing from Care
In which Ross wanders around the U District trying to find a 14-year-old who is “missing from care.” Writing good policy is hard and I don’t think it works if you don’t try hard to understand the reality of what you are trying to do.
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Take Me Home: Protecting America’s Vulnerable Children and Families
Take Me Home: Protecting America’s Vulnerable Children and Families by Jill Duerr Berrick My rating: 4 of 5 stars I thought this was super-interesting. Her view is that while it makes some sense to invest resources in “upstream prevention,” we can’t fix the entire problem that way and will still need a robust child welfare…
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Special Advocates for Kids
On Friday I completed the second day (of four) of my training to be a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA). A Dependency CASA is a trained community volunteer who acts as an advocate for the best interests of children who have experienced abuse or neglect and who are the subject of Juvenile Court proceedings. CASAs are appointed to…
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Hard to imagine…
In the Chronicle of Social Change Jerry Milner, Donald Trump’s appointment to the federal agency within the Department of Health and Human Services that oversees federal child welfare funding and policy, speaks about his priorities in running the agency and improving outcomes for kids. The hard to imagine part is that I agree with almost…
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A new department to better serve children, youth, and families
Gov. Jay Inslee signed a bill Thursday to restructure how the state serves at-risk children and youth by creating the Department of Children, Youth and Families. The governor also appointed Ross Hunter, director of the state’s Department of Early Learning, to lead DCYF. The new agency, after a yearlong transition period that begins this month,…