skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Wednesday, April 24, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Day two of David Pecker testimony wraps in NY Trump trial; Supreme Court hears arguments on Idaho's near-total abortion ban; ND sees a flurry of campaigning among Native candidates; and NH lags behind other states in restricting firearms at polling sites.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The Senate moves forward with a foreign aid package. A North Carolina judge overturns an aged law penalizing released felons. And child protection groups call a Texas immigration policy traumatic for kids.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The urban-rural death divide is widening for working-age Americans, many home internet connections established for rural students during COVID have been broken and a new federal rule aims to put the "public" back in public lands.

KYA: Family "Best Medicine" for Foster Kids

play audio
Play

Thursday, December 3, 2015   

JEFFERSONTOWN, Ky. - A leading child advocacy group in Kentucky wants the state to lift its moratorium on new enrollments in its Kinship Care Program so more financial support can go to relatives caring for children who have been removed from their parents. That is one of the recommendations in a new issue brief from Kentucky Youth Advocates.

KYA executive director Terry Brooks says it's vital children at risk of being removed from their homes continue to receive care in a family-type setting, if at all possible.

"It's a continuum," says Brooks. "We want to do everything we can to keep the family together. The next best step, in most cases, is to try to place them with a relative. Family is often the best medicine."

According to the KIDS COUNT data center the number of Kentucky children removed from their parents' care due to abuse or neglect has grown by 19 percent over the last five years. Even though the state has been moving towards using family settings more, nearly one out of every five kids in foster care is still placed in a group home or institution.

Chelsea Hoover was in both foster and kinship care from infancy until she was four. In her late teens she was in residential treatment. Now 23 and in college, Hoover says foster youth need mentors because their social workers are overworked, underpaid and often unavailable.

"Someone who is sort of neutral, outside of the environment that could provide support," says Hoover. "Just be someone to listen to, someone to be able to call."

Hoover is part of a youth advisory team for TRUE UP, a state-based initiative to help foster youth age out of care successfully.

Brooks says more than 10,000 children who are being raised by grandparents or other relatives were placed there by the state due to abuse or neglect, which he says is the wisest use of our tax dollars.

"It's not just best practice," says Brooks. "But it's a pragmatic reason to look at kinship care."

Brooks says when kinship care is not an option, a family-based home with foster parents is the next best option.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
Creedon Newell practices teaching construction skills in Wyoming's new career and technical educator bridge course, designed to encourage trades students and professionals to pursue a career in CTE teaching. (Photo by Rob Hill)

Social Issues

play sound

By Lane Wendell Fischer for the Shasta Scout via The Daily Yonder.Broadcast version by Suzanne Potter for California News Service for the Public News …


Environment

play sound

By Naoki Nitta for Civil Eats.Broadcast version by Suzanne Potter for California News Service reporting for the Solutions Journalism Network-Public Ne…

Social Issues

play sound

Concerns about potential voter intimidation have spurred several states to consider banning firearms at polling sites but so far, New Hampshire is …


Though Connecticut's benefits cliff persists, there are other programs helping people maintain benefits of some kind when their income pushes them over the limit. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

Today, groups working with lower-income families in Connecticut are raising awareness about the state's "benefits cliff" with a day of action…

Social Issues

play sound

Texas Lieutenant Gov. Dan Patrick has released 57 "interim charges," the topics he wants Senate committees to study in preparation for the 89th …

It is estimated the Wild Springs Solar Project in New Underwood, South Dakota, will offset 190,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year. (Adobe Stock)

Environment

play sound

The construction of more solar farms in the U.S. has been contentious but a new survey shows their size makes a difference in whether solar projects …

Social Issues

play sound

Minnesota's largest school district is at the center of a budget controversy tied to the recent wave of school board candidates fighting diversity pro…

play sound

Minnesota lawmakers are considering a measure which would force employers to properly classify certain trade union workers and others as employees rat…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021