More Assets for Foster Children

US Lawmakers are reconsidering assets for foster children. Currently, state foster care agencies claim federal money for maintaining foster children. As NPR's Rachel Jones reports on March 25th, "Across the country, child welfare agencies are trying to cover costs by claiming the Social Security benefits of tens of thousands of foster children. New legislation on Capitol Hill aims to give control of that money back to the children....Most states won't end the practice without a fight. But child advocates say that unless eligible foster children actually get the SSI payments they're entitled to, they could wind up like so many other youth who age out of the system: homeless and broke".

Does this mean that new initiative will reduce States burdens to take care older children? Does it imply that more monies will be allocated for States to maintain foster children as they will loose maintneance money? Who knows? Read more!

Less Money for Children

Children don't run for office. They are voiceless and faceless numbers in our political gamble. We've enough reasons to be concerned as the Urban Institute's published Kid's Share 2007 yesterday. It shows that less monies are slated for children. This published report says:

"This study reports on trends in federal spending on children from 1960 to 2017, looking across over 100 major federal programs, including tax credits and exemptions. Children's spending increasingly shifted from broad-based programs to programs targeting low-income or special needs children over the 1960 to 2006 period. Thirteen major programs enacted between 1960 and 2006, which include Medicaid, the earned income tax credit, and Food Stamps, comprised 65 percent of federal spending on children in 2006. Overall, federal children's spending increased in real terms from $53 billion in 1960 to $333 billion in 2006, or from 1.9 to 2.6 percent of GDP. Yet as a share of federal domestic spending, children's spending declined from 20.1 to 15.4 percent. Meanwhile, spending on the automatically growing, non-child portions of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, nearly quadrupled from 2.0 to 7.6 percent of GDP ($58 billion to $993 billion) over the same time period. Over the next ten years, children's programs are scheduled to decline both as a share of GDP and domestic spending, because they do not compete on a level playing field with these rapidly growing entitlement programs".

You can also listen to NPR's Rachel Jones report on March 15th on this issue. What's the next step? Are you going to write to your representatives? Who's going to lobby for children? Read more!

Why US ranked Lowest

It's an interesting article published yesterday in the Washington Post that UNICEF ranked US and Britain the lowest in the child welfare survey. The article says, "...The Netherlands, followed by Sweden, Denmark and Finland, finished at the top of the rankings, while the United States was 20th and Britain 21st, according to the report released Wednesday in Germany by UNICEF, the U.N. children's agency. One of the study's researchers, Jonathan Bradshaw, said children fared worse in the United States and Britain -- despite high overall levels of national wealth -- because of greater economic inequality and poor levels of public support for families".

As a child welfare professional, it concerns all of us. Are we failing as a profession? Read more!

Child Protection in the USA

Child Protective Service is the cornerstone of child welfare services. It is designed to protect children from physical, sexual, mental abuse, neglect and maltreatment by the family or caretaker. Child Protective services in each jurisdiction ensures that children are living in a safe, loving and caring environment. Public child welfare agencies in the Washington, DC metro are mandated to ensure that children are safe from any abuse and neglect and they are cared appropriately by their families. If you need more information about saving children from any unsafe environment or suspect that children have become victim of abuse and neglect, you need to contact your public child welfare agency where they live.

Child Protective Service responds to any child abuse and neglect incidents and reports. Most of the physical abuse indicators constitute non-accidental injuries such as assults, burns, fractures, bruises, unexplained physical injuries and severe beatings. Sexual abuse incidents occur when children are exploited for gratification by older children or adults. Most of the neglect incidents happen when children are deprived of basic food and clothing, supervision, and education. Most of the neglected children are deprived of care and love and they live in dangerous and unhealthy living environment. Children�s Bureau provides a chart of legal definitions of child abuse and neglect used across the United States.

By law, Medical Doctors, Nurses, Day Care Workers, Teachers, Shcool Officials, Social Workers, Mental Health Professionals, Police Officers, Psychologists are mandated reporters. Apart from mandated reporters, any person who is concerned about a child�s well-being is required to call Child Protective Services in his/her local jurisdiction. It is simply a moral and civic responsiblity to save a child from danger. When you call, you may give your name or stay annonymous. If you choose, your name will be kept confidential. Followings are the list of different jurisdictions in Washington, DC Metro area:

Alexandria City, Virginia:
Arlington County, Virginia:
Fairfax County, Virginia:
Montgomery County, Maryland:
Prince George's County, Maryland:
Washington, District of Columbia:
Children's Bureau:
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children: Read more!