Child Welfare
Connecticut came up well short of its goal of adding 850 new foster families in accordance with a federal court settlement, reports Angela Carter of the New Haven Register. The story also includes details about what foster families who have opted out in the state were frustrated with.
The Contra-Costa Times’ Christina Villacorte reports that the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted to have two troubled youth systems – child welfare and probation – report to them instead of the county’s Chief Executive Officer, William Fujioka.
Education/Jobs
Hartford Courant blogger Christopher Keating reports that Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy (D) has commenced layoffs in the absence of a deal with the state workers unions, and one area that will be hard hit is the state’s vocational-technical high schools.
Juvenile Justice
The Oregon Senate passed a bill that would require juveniles tried as adults to be detained in juvenile facilities before trial, reports Alan Gustafson of the Statesman Journal. Most Oregon counties currently hold them in adult jails.
Yakima, Wash. Television station KNDU/KNDO published a segment about juvenile sex offenders. One of the psychotherapists interviewed in the piece claims that only 2 percent of juvenile sex offenders who have had treatment went on to offend as adults.
Mental Health
Bessel van der Kolk, director of the Trauma Center at the Justice Resource Institute, criticizes the administration’s 2012 proposal to slash the budget for the National Child Traumatic Stress Network in an op-ed for the New York Times. The network currently receives $40 million per year.
