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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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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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WA Won’t Discriminate
Right before the change in administration earlier this month the federal Health and Human Services agency repealed a rule that prohibited government contractors from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, (SOGIE) or on religion. Washington does not allow this kind of discrimination today, and won’t allow it in the future.…
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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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Follow-up from Telephone Town Hall – Foster Care and 520 Bridge Schedule
Thanks for the 4000-5000 folks who listened to a segment of our telephone town hall last week. There were a lot of questions asked. If you have an extra hour and want to listen to the recording of the questions I answered here it is. I said I’d answer questions left on voicemail at the…
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Helping Foster Kids Launch
Investigate West published awesome investigative journalism on what happens to foster children when they “age out” of our system at age 18. As a parent I’m quite proud of my kids who are both in the 19-21 age group. They are in the process of separating from their parental units and require less and less…