(June) Family First: Cutting Through Fear, Injustice, and Delay in Child Welfare
Exposing harmful narratives, systemic failures, and the urgent need to keep families together—from poverty mislabels to immigrant youth left in limbo.
As the national conversation shifts toward keeping families safely together, some in the child welfare field are sounding alarms, framing efforts to reduce unnecessary family separation as threats to child safety. But let’s be clear: what they’re selling is fear, not facts. And that fear props up a system that too often punishes poverty, fuels racial injustice, and harms the very kids it claims to protect.
This week’s headlines offer a sobering reminder that while progress is happening, the fight for justice, for families, for immigrant youth, for children growing up in poverty is far from over. Here’s what we’re watching:
"The Wound is Still Fresh:” New Report Exposes ACS’s Systemic Discrimination Against Black and Latine Families in the Bronx - A new report from The Bronx Defenders lays bare the painful realities of NYC’s Administration for Children’s Services (ACS), showing how racist policies and practices are tearing apart Black and Latine families in the Bronx—with devastating consequences for children. Report: https://www.bronxdefenders.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/ACS-racism-report-FINAL.pdf
Poverty, Neglect, and Finding the Right Answers - This thoughtful piece challenges how we think about “poverty-related neglect.” Poverty doesn’t just cause material hardship—it limits parents’ choices and reshapes what “good parenting” can look like under impossible circumstances.
Why this matters:
How we define and interpret "neglect" has real consequences for families, especially those living in poverty. When systems automatically equate poverty-related struggles (like food insecurity, lack of housing, or gaps in childcare) with neglect, families are more likely to be investigated, monitored, or even separated not because they pose a danger to their children, but because they are poor.
This mindset ignores the harsh reality that poverty can limit a parent’s ability to make "good" or "safe" choices, not because of neglectful intent, but because of structural barriers like low wages, unsafe housing options, or lack of affordable child care. If we mislabel poverty as neglect, we risk punishing families for being poor instead of addressing the root causes of their hardship, like economic inequality, racism, and lack of social support.
Reframing how we think about poverty-related neglect is essential to creating a child welfare system that supports families rather than policing or punishing them. It’s the difference between lifting families up or tearing them apart.
2025 KIDS COUNT Data Book – The Annie E. Casey Foundation - The latest Data Book reveals a mixed picture: progress in some areas, but troubling setbacks in others. It’s a reminder that when it comes to child and family well-being, the U.S. still has a long way to go.
False Hopes 2023 Report: Over 100,000 Immigrant Youth Trapped in the SIJS Backlog - More than 100,000 immigrant youth—already found by courts to have survived abuse, abandonment, or neglect—are stuck in limbo as delays in Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) leave them without stability, status, or safety.
Why this matters:
These are young people who have already been recognized by U.S. courts as survivors of abuse, abandonment, or neglect, and yet they remain trapped in a bureaucratic backlog that leaves them without protection, legal status, or a path to stability.
The system’s failure to resolve these cases not only violates the purpose of SIJS—to provide relief to vulnerable children, but also deepens harm for youth who have already endured significant trauma. Without swift action, these young people remain at risk of exploitation, homelessness, and continued instability in a country that has already determined they deserve protection. This isn’t just a paperwork problem—it’s a child safety crisis.
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In The News + Resources
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Child Welfare Policy & Practice
Exploring reforms, policies, programs, and practices shaping the future of child welfare systems.
Increased Access to Child Care and Early Childhood Education Promotes Child Safety - Access to child care and early childhood education programs is a powerful protective factor for families. A growing body of research demonstrates that these services can reduce risk of child maltreatment, foster care placement, and involvement with the child welfare system.
Children do best with their families - Recently, a chorus of voices in child welfare have tried to frame the growing national effort to reduce unnecessary family separation as a threat to child safety. But what they are selling isn’t the truth — it’s fear. And that fear fuels a system that too often harms the very children it claims to protect.
Abolition of the Child Welfare System: An Invitation - This paper calls for abolishing the child welfare system, arguing that family separation is state-sanctioned violence that cannot be reformed but must be dismantled. It outlines the movement’s core principles and envisions a future where families are supported, not surveilled or separated.
Sowing the seeds of hope: Keeping children safe with families - This report from Casey Family Programs introduces the concept of a 'hope-informed system' in child welfare. It explains how fostering hope—defined as the belief that the future can improve and that pathways exist to reach it—can improve outcomes for children, families, and the workforce. By embedding hope into policies, practices, and decision-making, child welfare systems can promote resilience, well-being, and stronger family connections.
Roundtable 1 - Key Insights - Driving Meaningful Change Amid Chaos and Uncertainty - The inaugural UnSystem Roundtable took place on May 22, 2025, under the theme “From Crisis to Transformation: Driving Meaningful Change Amid Chaos and Uncertainty.” Cohosted by Amelia Franck Meyer (Alia) and Commissioner Christine Norbut Beyer (New Jersey Department of Children and Families), the session featured seasoned leaders from across the country who have weathered public scrutiny, lawsuits, budget crises, and tragic losses—
yet remained committed to transforming systems for children and families.
Trump 2026 Budget Consolidates or Eliminates Several Youth Programs - At long last, President Donald Trump has released fuller details of his proposal for fiscal 2026 spending, in the form of a 1,224-page appendix that lays out the fine print of a “skinny budget” released last month.
PCA America's Statement on the President's FY26 Budget Proposal: Cuts Threaten Critical Child Abuse Prevention Programs - These cuts threaten the safety and well-being of children across the country. ACEs, including abuse, neglect and household trauma, are among the strongest predictors of negative long-term health, academic, and economic outcomes for children and families. Decades of science have shown that these problems can be avoided; this is called prevention. When we invest early, we save lives, strengthen families, and reduce long-term costs.
Equity & Justice: Breaking Down Barriers
Centering racial, economic, and social justice as we work toward fairer outcomes for children and families.
Poverty, Neglect, and Finding the Right Answers - We too often conceive of “poverty-related neglect” as being about things we think should be linked to poverty. We are willing to call lack of food, shelter and medical care poverty-related neglect because our priors tell us those things should be caused by poverty. Unfortunately, this leads to biased thinking. Poverty may directly cause some types of neglect, but it also may force changes in parenting and limit the range of “good choices” that parents are able to make. That is, poverty may create a context in which neglect is more likely to occur.
True Narratives: Framing Pain, Punishment, and the Lethality of Termination of Parental Rights - This essay challenges the myths that uphold Termination of Parental Rights (TPR), exposing its roots in structural racism and anti-Blackness. It argues that TPR causes lasting harm to families and calls for abolishing its use as a tool of state control, offering a vision for true, supportive family policy.
Liberation Psychology Gains Ground in a Fractured World - A systematic review reveals growing global interest in Liberation Psychology, a framework that resists individualistic and medicalized models of mental health in favor of community-based approaches rooted in social justice and collective healing. This renewed attention arrives amid escalating global crises of displacement, inequality, and violence, conditions under which Liberation Psychology has long offered an alternative vision for understanding and responding to suffering.
The Trump administration is making the country less safe for domestic violence victims - Over the last four decades, the United States has built a web of federal policies and funding to address domestic and intimate partner violence, a pervasive health and safety crisis. In just 130 days, the Trump administration has put that safety net in jeopardy.
False Hopes 2023 Report: Over 100,000 thousand Immigrant Youth Trapped in the SIJS Backlog - Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (“SIJS”) is a humanitarian protection created by a bipartisan Congress in 1990 to offer a pathway to lawful permanent resident (“LPR”) status, also known as a “green card,” for immigrant youth who are in need of protection. In all cases, a state court has determined that the youth has survived abuse, abandonment, or neglect by at least one parent and that it would not be in their best interest to return to their country of origin.
Health, Mental Health & Well-Being
Highlighting the critical role of health, mental health, and well-being in building family stability and resilience.
What Will Happen to Opioid and Drug Overdose Deaths after CDC Cuts? - Layoffs and funding freezes have gutted the CDC’s response to the opioid crisis—just as harm reduction was beginning to work.
Family Needs and Service Trajectory During the Transition to School for Children With Autism - This study examines the evolving support needs of 64 parents of children with autism in Montreal during the transition from early behavioral services to kindergarten. Findings show that parents’ needs—especially around complex child needs and educational services—change over time, highlighting the importance of ongoing, tailored support throughout the school transition.
Medicaid Work Reporting Requirements – Even with Exemptions – Will Have Significant Consequences for People with Substance Use Disorders - As covered on Say Ahhh! earlier this month, Congress is considering work reporting requirements for Medicaid recipients. The real effect of this proposal would be to cut coverage for vulnerable Americans. Evidence shows work requirements don’t increase employment but instead cause many to lose health coverage. Any budget “savings” would come mainly from these coverage losses, especially since states must invest in costly systems to enforce these rules and avoid wrongful cutoffs.
America might finally make childbirth free - As politicians grapple with declining birth rates, the financial burden of giving birth in America — where privately insured families face out-of-pocket costs of nearly $3,000 on average — has captured widespread attention.
Lived Experience & Community-Led Solutions
Elevating voices from youth, families, and communities to inform and inspire transformative change.
Local Group Declares June As Stolen Children’s Month - On Monday, people impacted by forced family separation, along with advocates, attorneys, and organizers, held a virtual rally via Zoom to declare June 2025 the first annual Stolen Children’s Month. According to Ashley Albert, Founder of Stolen Child’s Month, the initiative is an attempt to honor the children stolen and families destroyed by forced separation, to uplift the voices of survivors and to demand urgent changes to law policies that continue to perpetuate the destruction of so many families.
Learning from Young Adults to Improve Public Benefits for All - The transition to adulthood is key in shaping young adults’ financial security and future. New independence, education, and responsibilities bring financial challenges that can affect their stability and goals. Drawing from interviews with public benefits experts and young leaders, we created five personas illustrating common experiences navigating public benefits. These stories highlight critical intervention points and opportunities to improve access and support based on successful practices nationwide.
Resources, Data & Tools for Change
Curating actionable tools, data insights, and research to support practitioners, advocates, and changemakers.
Defining Rurality - There is no single representation of life in a rural community. Some families can drive to services in nearby cities within a day, while others live in remote, geographically bound communities difficult to reach by car. This brief seeks to inform state Infant-Toddler Court Programs and local partners as they collect data and evaluate program performance with rural populations. It shares six federal definitions of rurality—and the nuanced differences between them—before discussing child welfare datasets that can measure rurality.
2025 KIDS COUNT Data Book - The Annie E. Casey Foundation - This year’s Data Book tells a mixed story — steady progress in some areas, setbacks in others and opportunities to do better for kids and families.
Associations between adverse childhood experiences, resilience, and health and educational outcomes using data from the 2022 National Survey of Children's Health - Exposure to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) is associated with poor childhood health. There is increasing interest in understanding the influence of positive childhood experiences (PCEs) because of their potential protective role against ACEs.
Child care cost the most in these states in 2024, analysis found - A nonprofit advocacy group released findings from a recent analysis of child care costs and affordability across the United States. ChildCare Aware of America found the national average price of child care for 2024 was $13,128.
Leveraging Data to Improve Child Welfare Outcomes - Prioritizing kinship placements for children who enter the child welfare system is a growing trend across states and territories. While kinship placements are not always plausible, new data analysis and tools are making it easier to explore strategies to keep children as close to home as possible in kin-like settings. Kinship placements are associated with higher rates of permanency and stability: children placed in a kin-like setting are less likely to experience reentry into foster care.
State Specific:
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AZ - SNAP cuts will hurt Arizonans but won't stop fraud, advocate says - The U.S. Senate this week is expected to start work on the budget bill approved by the house last month. And some senators say they’re hoping for changes to what has been dubbed the ‘big beautiful bill.’ Among many other provisions, the measure would cut billions of dollars for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP – this is the program commonly referred to as food stamps. It’s currently funded by the federal government, but the House version would force states to cover part of it by 2028.
CA - Central Valley Foster Care Agencies are Facing an Insurance Crisis - The nonprofit agencies that serve some of the Central Valley’s most vulnerable youth have found themselves stuck between the proverbial rock and the hardest of decisions. After the largest insurer of nonprofit foster care agencies across California announced it was pulling out of the market and would not renew policies last year, organizations had a choice to make — find new insurance at a much higher rate, or stop placing youth with foster families.
ID - Panel: Foster system improving, but more work to do - In a year of historic state investments in improving Idaho’s child welfare system, officials and child advocates on Thursday applauded the progress made but said there’s a lot more to be done. A panel of people who work in the field spoke at the Idaho State Museum for a City Club of Boise forum focused on public and private sector efforts to improve the state’s foster system and child care access for Idaho families.
ME - Legislators, child welfare advocates question DHHS after Lewiston 4-year-old dies from gunshot wound - Child welfare advocates are pressuring the Maine Department of Health and Human Services for more answers regarding the death of a four-year-old boy.
MN - Silent No More: Groundbreaking Report on Life in the Child Welfare System Produced by Minnesota Foster Youth - Foster youth took part in numerous focus groups and met virtually to produce a sweeping 86-page report with the Minnesota nonprofit Foster Advocates.
NC - NC Senate committee approves legislation to expand Medicaid access - The Senate Health Committee passed two bills Thursday that would expand Medicaid access for inmates and postpartum mothers, redefine child welfare regulations, and implement steps biological fathers can take in a child’s adoption process.
NY - “The Wound is Still Fresh:” New Report Exposes ACS’s Systemic Discrimination Against Black and Latine Families in the Bronx, as Revealed by Dozens of Families Themselves - Today, The Bronx Defenders released a report detailing how New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) destroys Black and Latine families in the Bronx through its dangerous reliance on racist practices, with the severest life-altering consequences for the very children it claims to protect. Report: https://www.bronxdefenders.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/ACS-racism-report-FINAL.pdf
NY - From System Survivor to System Changer: A Foster Youth's Blueprint for Healing, Reform, and Legacy - I was just 12 years old the first time bullets flew past my head while I crouched behind a green dumpster. That sound — the eerie whiz of death skimming the air — never left me. But neither did the fire in me that always whispered, You were made for more.
OH - I'm a police chief. Law enforcement can't tackle Ohio's addiction crisis alone - The Department of Justice's decision to eliminate over $88 million in addiction and mental health services recently – and dozens of grants for victims' services – deeply alarms me.
PA - Centre officials support child welfare workers, providers - During this week’s Board of Commissioners meeting, the board recognized the work of child welfare workers and service providers with two proclamations.
RI - Wrongful removal leads to child abuse tragedies, artificial ‘shortage’ of foster parents - The money spent to support Rhode Island’s foster care system could be used instead to prevent families from falling apart in the first place.
WA - Murders of Wenatchee girls sparks outcry over WA child welfare laws - The murders of three young sisters in Wenatchee have sparked debate over Washington's Keeping Families Together Act, which aims to reduce foster care placements.
WA - A Washington Mother Had Custody of Her Kids and Protection From Her Abuser. Then a Guardian Ad Litem Got Involved - Gina Bloom lost custody of her kids to her domestic abuser in Washington’s family court system in 2021. In January, she filed a lawsuit against her ex-husband’s attorney and the court-appointed guardian ad litem arguing they had colluded to flip the narrative against her.
+ More
The “+ More” section features podcasts, webinars, and other resources that connect to equity, community support, leadership, and social change — all helping us think bigger about child welfare.
Podcasts:
A New Way Forward on Children’s Mental Health - Over the course of his career leading youth and family services, Alex Briscoe has become an expert in Medicaid policy, one of the most complex but substantial corners of government funding. He recently led a multi-year initiative called the California Children's Trust, which set out to reimagine the state’s approach to screening and meeting the mental health needs of children. He joined The Imprint Weekly Podcast to talk about how it should work, why he thinks we rely too much on a medical model of care in America, and what the stakes are for kids when it comes to the battle over Medicaid spending going on in Washington, D.C.
Webinars/Videos:
June 12, 2025 // 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM PDT
Perinatal Mental Health 101 - Learn about the various Maternal Mental Health Disorders, the differences between them, risk factors, and treatment options. The course is designed for providers, administrators, and public health employees, though all are welcome.
June 17, 2025 // 6:30 PM ET
MFP & Partners: Teach In - Breaking Binaries: Queer Abolitionist Dreamscapes of Bodily Autonomy - Join our second virtual teach-in on June 17th: Breaking Binaries: Queer Abolitionist Dreamscapes of Bodily Autonomy. An intergenerational worldbuilding session centering the wisdom of queer, trans, young people & parents. In this conversation, we will connect with community experts who are disrupting family policing, building roadmaps to bodily autonomy and joyfully dreaming a world where we are all free.
June 24, 2025 // 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM ET
Policy to Practice: Championing Gender-Affirming Care - Our presenters will discuss the complexities of providing gender-affirming care in the current moment, seen through a variety of perspectives. Our legal experts will examine the implications of these care bans, upcoming Supreme Court decisions, and strategies for providers and patients to navigate the legal landscape. From a clinical perspective, attendees will examine the evidence behind gender-affirming care principles and the impacts on adolescents of encountering barriers to care.
June 26, 2025 // 10:00 AM - 7:00 PM ET
Visible and Unstoppable Zoomathon - We're curating a lineup of voices, stories, and resources that uplift LGBTQIA2S+ youth and families across the country. Whether you're a youth with a story, a parent with experience to share, a leader, or part of an affirming organization—this event is for you. It is our hope that this event is both the first of more to come in visible, unstoppable support and community connection, as well as the launch of an ongoing campaign that makes it clear to you and your loved ones that we, LGBTQIA2S+ youth and adults aren't going anywhere.
Meetings:
CWLA Connect: A Weekly Forum for Child- & Family-Serving Professionals & Advocates - 1:00 – 2:00 PM ET
Have news, resources, or events you think we should feature? We'd love to hear from you!
Welcome to Child Welfare News + More!
We share a collection of articles, podcasts, webinars, and websites focused on child welfare — plus a few extras you might find helpful or inspiring. We exist to ensure that access to information — particularly about equity, justice, and systemic change — remains open, transparent, and available to everyone, no matter the political climate. We believe everyone deserves full access to information, even when it is uncomfortable or challenges the status quo.