Recent news

Unlocking Potential: The Strength of Our Stories as the Key to Child Welfare Reform was released in July 2017. It is the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute 2017 Foster Youth Internship Program Report and contains 12 recommendations for reforming the child welfare system.

Yesterday, Juvenile Law Center released a new report on solitary confinement in youth prisons and legal strategies to end the practice nationwide. Juvenile Law Center surveyed public defenders and interviewed youth, their families, and correctional facility administrators to shed light the reality of youth solitary confinement.

Youth with disabilities are significantly overrepresented in the child welfare system, and planning for their transition out of care and into a successful adulthood presents unique challenges. Juvenile Law Center produced a four-part webinar series that provides tips and legal strategies to help support child welfare-involved youth as they prepare for that transition.

Twenty-seven years ago this month, Congress enacted the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) into law. This landmark civil rights legislation prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability and requires that people with disabilities have the opportunity to live, work, and access services in the community to the same degree as their non-disabled peers. The ADA requires reasonable accommodations be made so that differently-abled people may lead full, rich lives.

Yesterday, Youth Fostering Change traveled to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to present their finalized court participation tools and recommendations to Sandra Moore, Director of the Office of Children and Families in the Courts, and Stephenie Strayer, Judicial Program Analyst. Ms. Moore and Ms. Strayer were excited to hear about the project and supported the youth advocates’ recommendations.

Earlier this week, Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court unanimously ruled in Commonwealth v. Batts that, before a child can be sentenced to life without parole, the state must prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the youth is permanently incorrigible. Juvenile Law Center filed amicus briefs in Batts and argued the case before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 2012 and 2016.