Child Welfare
Something to watch in a number of states: Manya Brachear of the Chicago Tribune reports on one of the state’s Catholic Charities sites halting its state-funded foster care and adoption services on Wednesday, the day civil unions take effect. The move is being made to avoid liability if the state requires Catholic Charities to place children with unmarried couples, gay or straight.
The Associated Press reports that a U.S. District Judge will allow the Children’s Rights lawsuit against the Texas foster care system to proceed as a class action.
Meanwhile, Sara Foley of San Antonio’s Caller.com reports that nonprofit litigator Children’s Rights will use case files for 500 children to prove mistreatment and mismanagement in the state’s child welfare system, particularly in regard to its efforts to find permanency for youths who have been in the system for a long time.
Education/Jobs
Jessice Alaimo of the Lancaster Eagle Gazette reports on Sen. Sherrod Brown’s (D-Ohio) new plan to make repaying college loans easier.
Juvenile Justice
A U.S. District Judge declined to overturn the verdict in the case of disgraced Pennsylvania juvenile judge Mark Ciavarella, reports Dave Janoski of the Scranton Times-Tribune. Ciavarella “faces a likely sentence of 15 or more years,” Janoski writes.
Esther Cepeda uses the case of the 10-year-old boy who killed his neo-Nazi father to opine in Oregon’s Statesman Journal about how children become violent.
