More child deaths possibly linked to abuse and neglect in Louisiana have been investigated so far this year than in all of 2025, and the number of proven fatal incidents is on pace to surpass last year’s count according to the state’s child welfare agency.
On June 24, 2025, a district court judge signed my name change order. By noon, I bore the last name Cook. This change signaled more than a nominal tie to my chosen family. It marked my official departure from the generational cycles of domestic violence and addiction that lingered with my previous name. There are […]
For 10 years, I was a certified foster parent in Kentucky. I recently closed my home, but one lesson still defies common sense: Kentucky has somehow made adopting one of its own waiting children harder than adopting a waiting child from another state. The Kentucky Adoption Profile Exchange, or KAPE, is supposed to find permanent […]
While living alone in an apartment in Hampton Roads, about 20 minutes from his work as an E5 (petty officer, second class) at Naval Station Norfolk, David Morrow decided it was time to look for an animal companion to enrich his time off-base. “My little dog, named Lola, (is) a very energetic lab. She’s about […]
Taking care of vulnerable children in Georgia has gotten a lot more expensive, and lawmakers are hoping to figure out why. “We’re trying to figure out what happened,” said state Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick, a Marietta Republican. “And unfortunately, nobody had a whole lot of notice that we were in a deficit situation with that particular […]
Idaho has taken several steps to increase oversight of facilities where foster children and other youth reside or get treatment. The actions stem from recommendations in an oversight report released last year, and the Legislature may consider additional changes next year. Evaluators with the independent state agency the Office of Performance Evaluations, or OPE, on […]
(The Center Square) – A national advocacy organization is urging Louisiana leaders to fund a college tuition waiver program for former foster youth that has been on the books for two decades but has never been implemented because lawmakers never appropriated the money.
A New York-based child welfare advocacy group has dropped a lawsuit against the Alaska Office of Children’s Services that alleged widespread misconduct by the state’s foster care system. A Better Childhood, which represented 5 foster care children in the federal suit, told the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals last week that it was seeking to […]
Additional reporting by Rachel Dissell This article was first published by The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization covering the U.S. criminal justice system. Sign up for their newsletters, and follow them on Instagram, TikTok, Reddit and Facebook. ST. CLAIRSVILLE, OHIO – Paitin Pahoundis jolted awake, a siren blaring in her ears. Her friend Samantha […]
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez on Tuesday announced his office filed a lawsuit against the state’s child welfare agency following reports that agency staffers took a teenage boy out of the foster care system and told him to cross the U.S.-Mexico border to reunite with his estranged mother in Ciudad Juárez.
