For two decades, the Casey Foundation has collaborated with child welfare agencies to improve how they help families keep children safe from abuse and neglect. More recently, these efforts have included developing tools, such as the Relative Rate Index, for measuring and addressing racial disparities.
The number of children in foster care grew during the past three years. The story behind the numbers is complex, but Casey encourages judges and child welfare workers to focus on proven strategies to ensure only those who need to enter care do.
Casey’s Lisa Hamilton talks with Rafael López about America’s child welfare system. Their conversation explores the system today, how it works and where it falls short. López also shares ideas aimed at transforming the system to better serve children and families in crisis.
Team decision making is a departure from traditional child welfare practice. It brings together parents, family, community members and others to assess the situation and determine how best to keep the child safe.
In 2015, nearly 112,000 kids in foster care were waiting to be adopted — and another 53,500 kids in care were adopted into a family. The KIDS COUNT Data Center shares select statistics on both groups.
When child welfare systems infuse trauma-informed care into everything they do, kids experience fewer placements and fare better in foster care, according to new Casey-funded research.
More than 240,000 children exited the foster care system in 2015, the vast majority to family, according to the KIDS COUNT Data Center.
The nation’s foster care population has swelled to 428,000 children — its largest size since 2008, according to the KIDS COUNT Data Center.
The Casey Foundation and FosterClub Executive Celeste Bodner teamed up for a Twitter chat on foster parenting. This post offers an inspiring snapshot of the conversation that unfolded during the session.
By the time U.S. kids reach adulthood, 37% have crossed paths with Child Protective Services as potential victims of maltreatment, according to a new study pubilshed in the American Journal of Public Health.
