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Although the United States joined with the U.N. in 2016 in a pledge to end child marriages by 2030, only seven states and two U.S. territories have made it illegal for people younger than 18 to get married. All other states allow it — sometimes with the permission of a parent, judge or both.
At a US House of Representatives Hearing on Migrant Family Separation Policy, Jack P. Shonkoff, M.D. (Director of the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University) gave testimony on the impacts of family separation on children, highlighting the "strong scientific consensus supported by decades of peer-reviewed research" that "sudden, forcible separation of children from their parents is deeply traumatic for both the child and the parent," triggering "a massive biological stress response." Shonkoff's testimony outlines two core scientific concepts:
- A strong…
Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, senior fellow in the Global Economy and Development program and Center for Universal Education at Brookings submitted this statement on behalf of the Scientific Advisory Group, Early Childhood of the Bezos Family Foundation. The statement has been released in light of the policy of family separation of immigrant families at the U.S. border with Mexico and outlines the harmful impacts of the toxic stress of family separation on children's brain development and physical wellbeing.
This stress makes the amygdala, the hub of the fight or flight response, …
The Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action is an interagency coalition of nearly 100 member organizations working to protect children who face adversity. The Alliance, in response to the current situation of family separation at the U.S. border with Mexico, is calling for urgent action to rapidly reunify separated children with their families and end detention, in accordance with their best interests.
Based on the collective experiences of Alliance members, lessons learned, and accepted standards of care and protection for children, the Alliance urges all responsible…
This blog post from Child Trends presents findings from an evaluation of three models of trauma-informed care (TIC) in the US child welfare system. These models "train staff, resource parents, and other adults in children’s lives to recognize and respond effectively to traumatic stress reactions, to integrate screening and assessment into care, and to refer children who have been exposed to trauma to evidence-based and evidence-informed treatments," says Child Trends. The blog post presents information on each of the three models (Trauma Systems Therapy, Trauma Systems Therapy-…
In 2016, when the number of children removed from their families in the state of Arizona, USA peaked at more than 18,000, the Arizona Community Foundation gave The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com a three-year grant to support in-depth research on the topic. This report is part of that initiative and explores the racial and ethnic makeup of children in foster care, versus that of the advisory boards (Foster Care Review Boards) which are designed to "help decide the fates of children in foster care" and are meant to "mirror the races, ethnicities and income levels of…
Notes
America’s foster care population has swelled to 428,000 children — its largest size since 2008, according to the KIDS COUNT Data Center. More children in foster care means that more families are crossing paths with the country’s child welfare system.
It’s a system that Rafael López — the managing director of Accenture’s health and public services practice — knows extremely well. Prior to working at…
This opinion piece from the Washington Post discusses how working to keep children with their families is a better option than placing them in foster homes. The article further notes that when foster children return home, they struggle to deal with their experiences. Many children end up encountering the juvenile detention center or incarceration.
The article emphasizes the importance of strengthening families, and mentions that in June, the senate introduced the bipartisan, bicameral Family First Prevention Services Act to strengthen families by doing more to keep children…
According to the advocacy organization, First Focus, the U.S. Senate Finance Committee is planning to consider new legislation known as the Family First Act in January 2016. The legislation would direct investments at keeping children safe and supported at home and in family-like settings. The Act addresses longstanding barriers in federal child welfare financing by providing targeted new investments in evidence-based prevention, intervention and post-permanency services and supports. The legislation is significant because it would allow states, for the first time, to…
In this article in the magazine Mother Jones, Kathryn Joyce, the author of a recently published book on the issue titled The Child Catchers: Rescue, Trafficking, and the New Gospel of Adoption chronicles the rapidly growing evangelical movement for international adoption in the United States since early 2000, and its impact on children and their families, with a particular focus on Liberia. She follows the story of four children adopted by a Tennessee family from Liberia, a country that had just emerged from a 14-year civil war…