Child welfare
MISSION, Kan. (AP) — The head of a Kansas legislative panel wants to end the state’s contract with its largest foster care contractor, after two former executives were accused of scheming to defraud the organization out of at least $4.7 million.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas officials are investigating the death of a foster child who left a residential treatment facility, stole a truck and crashed into a semitruck in Oklahoma last month.
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — The Maine Legislature’s Government Oversight Committee voted to obtain a subpoena to force the state’s child welfare agency to turn over documents related to the deaths of four children last year.
A judge has ruled that a Christian boarding school in southwestern Missouri can remain open despite the state attorney general alleging a “dark pattern of behavior.”
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — The American Civil Liberties Union of South Dakota is joining other states in filing an amicus brief in defense of the Indian Child Welfare Act.
EL CAJON, Calif. (AP) — A 37-year-old mother of nine children was shot and killed at her home near San Diego and her husband was arrested on suspicion of murder, authorities said.
BISBEE, Ariz. (AP) — MJ was a tiny, black-haired girl, just 5 years old, when her father admitted to his bishop that he was sexually abusing her.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A former state child welfare worker and a substance abuse consultant pleaded guilty Wednesday to participating in a bribery scheme in South Florida.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The embattled state agency that oversees child welfare in New Mexico said Friday it is retraining its front-line investigators and creating new critical review teams as part of an effort to once again overhaul a department that has struggled with child fatalities and critica
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — An appeals court has revived a federal lawsuit that a lower court dismissed accusing the state of West Virginia of failing to protect children and fix its overwhelmed foster care system.
OTTAWA (AP) — The Canadian government said Monday it has signed a $20 billion (US$15.55 billion) agreement to compensate First Nations children and families harmed by chronic underfunding of child welfare.
SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Officials at the Oregon Department of Human Services are considering a move that would make it harder for the public to access child abuse investigations.
Three Texas families with transgender children are suing the state over its investigations into them over gender-confirming treatment the youths have received.
Child welfare officials in Oregon will stop using an algorithm to help decide which families are investigated by social workers, opting instead for a new process that officials say will make better, more racially equitable decisions.
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina agency is assuming control temporarily of a portion of a county department of social services after an investigation revealed a systemic lack of adequate training, supervision and capacity to deliver appropriate child welfare services.
The Texas Supreme Court is allowing the state to investigate parents of transgender youth for child abuse.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A tentative $32 million settlement has been reached with Los Angeles County in a lawsuit over its child welfare agency’s supervision of a boy who allegedly was abused to death by his mother and her boyfriend, attorneys announced Wednesday.
GLASGOW, Ky. (AP) — A Kentucky judge has held the state’s child welfare agency in contempt for the second time this year, according to a published report.
Inside a cavernous stone fortress in downtown Pittsburgh, attorney Robin Frank defends parents at one of their lowest points – when they risk losing their children.
For family law attorney Robin Frank, defending parents at one of their lowest points — when they risk losing their children — has never been easy.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A contracted Los Angeles County counselor who failed to report suspected abuse of two young boys who later died has received four years of probation from a state licensing board.
The Netherlands’ data protection watchdog has imposed a record 3.7 million euro ($4 million) fine on the country’s tax office.
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Maine Gov. Janet Mills has signed into law a bill that strengthens the Office of the Child Welfare Ombudsman following several highly publicized deaths of children in June.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts on Monday trimmed $51.8 million in spending from the new state budget that lawmakers sent him last week before signing the rest of the package into law.
PHOENIX (AP) — The Arizona Court of Appeals has ruled that state officials were wrong to put a woman who legally used medical marijuana while pregnant on an employment-related list indicating she had neglected a child through prenatal exposure of her infant.
Some child welfare workers in Texas say they’re quitting over a new directive that allows abuse investigations into parents of transgender kids.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Maltreatment was a factor in the death last year of a 5-year-old child from West Warwick, Rhode Island child welfare authorities said Thursday.
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky lawmakers took aim Wednesday at reversing the state’s chronically high rates for child abuse and neglect, passing a sweeping measure to bolster prevention and oversight efforts.
HOUMA, La. (AP) — Five candidates are in the running to become the next leader of a south Louisiana school district.
A Texas court has tossed out the state’s appeal of a judge’s order preventing child welfare officials from investigating the parents of a transgender teenager over gender-confirming care the youth received.
HOUSTON (AP) — The nation’s largest pediatric hospital has announced it has stopped gender-affirming therapies after Texas Gov.