MIAMI — The goal for the thousands of children in Florida's foster care program is to find forever homes. But a new tracking system developed at the University of Miami shows the dream for many children is short-lived.

Many kids don't even unpack because of the uncertainty over how long they will stay in a foster home - which sometimes can be as little as a few hours. After combing through thousands of youth records at the Florida Department of Children and Families, Robert Latham, associate director of the university’s Youth Law Clinic, mapped the placement path of every child in foster care since 2002.

He found 80 percent of kids met national placement standards for being moved around. But he noticed troubling outcomes for the remaining 20 percent.

"That captured the kind of absurdity of a kid having 35 houses over the course of two years,” Latham said. “Right? I mean, who lives in 35 houses in two years? That's just not OK. "

State officials point out the the tremendous trauma experienced by some children that makes it difficult for them to trust an adult. According to state data, Florida's rate of 4.8 placements per thousand days in foster care comes in just over the national standard of 4.2.

Chris Card is chief of community-based care at Eckerd Connects, which manages child-welfare cases for Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco counties. He said thanks to federal funding, the state developed a data-tracking system to track touchpoints such as a child's performance in school, problems with parents and other factors to identify red flags.

He said that system has been in place for about twenty years, and Latham's program is just another step forward.

"Kids with some problems are starting to pop up a little bit earlier than the older systems that we’ve had developed, but it's been an ongoing process,” Card said. “I think we've just gotten more sophisticated, a little bit better. And this last rendition is something even better. "

Both Latham and Card agree Florida's foster-care system is overwhelmed and operating on very few resources. Latham said he'd like to see the state dig deeper to track the number of times a child is arrested, involuntarily committed or returns to foster care after adoption.

He said he'd like to see a review panel formed to examine why a child is left bouncing around from home-to-home similar to those formed when a child dies in the system.

"I think if we put that kind of focus and intent on this problem, I think it could really be reduced,” he said. “Again, it's certainly not OK that 19,000 kids have had 10 or more placements. That's not OK. "

Card said the state needs to provide foster families and nonprofits with greater resources and support. And Latham added it also comes down to having more foster families in the system, which he said gives a child better options for making their first placement the last.


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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- As the pandemic wanes, hunger and food insecurity are also on the decline, but the need is still far above pre-pandemic levels, especially for people of color.

Ami McReynolds, chief equity and programs officer for Feeding America, said despite recent decreases, the amount of food being distributed by the organization's partner food banks remained more than 55% above pre-pandemic levels.

"The pandemic seemed to worsen the conditions for people of color in this country. African Americans went from 2.5 times to 3.2 times more likely to be food insecure."

McReynolds added Latinos went from 2.0 to 2.5 times more likely to be food insecure during the same time period.

Feeding America reports 38 million people were food insecure before the pandemic, and almost 60 million people turned to a charitable feeding system for assistance in 2020. Feeding America works with more than 200 food banks across the country.

She is confident various interventions allowed people to have enough to eat, but worries food insecurity could increase all over again if more setbacks occur, such as the expiration of eviction moratoriums and expanded unemployment benefits.

"The racial wealth gap just really continues to widen for people of color who are seeing higher rates of unemployment, limited learning potential and continued lack of homeownership," McReynolds outlined.

In addition to food banks, the government-led Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps, saw an increase of seven million users between 2019 and 2021.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Children's advocacy groups are making the case that school-based health centers are a worthy investment for Ohio's kids.

Tracy Najera, executive director of the Children's Defense Fund-Ohio, said being able to get health-care needs met at school gives children and families a "medical home" for primary care and other services. She said a child's physical and mental wellness is foundational for success in academics and life.

"Especially during this pandemic, children and families have been struggling and truly suffering," she said. "Behavioral-health issues have reached crisis levels - and many children, in general, haven't been receiving their well-child visits."

Ohio has at least $3 billion in recovery funds from the American Rescue Plan Act not yet allocated, and the Ohio Children's Budget Coalition is asking the governor's office to invest $25 million per year over two years to help school districts around the state expand or establish school-based health programs. Najera said that investment could fund between 15 and 30 projects.

The convenience of a school-based health center not only helps improve access to care, Najera said, but it also reduces absenteeism.

"That's one less day of work that the parent misses, and one day less of school that a child is missing," she said. "So, really bringing the services to where the children are makes a whole lot of sense."

Najera added that the centers are a part of a "whole-child" agenda being promoted by the Ohio Children's Budget Coalition.

"Children need food, they need housing, they need education, they need health care - they need all these things to really thrive and flourish," she said. "Children don't come in pieces, and neither should our budget and policy decisions."

A new American Academy of Pediatrics report said the number of school-based health centers has more than doubled in the United States since 1998. There are more than 60 in Ohio schools.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- With the Arkansas Health Insurance Marketplace open-enrollment period just around the corner, advocacy groups are gearing up to get as many families covered as possible.

A new report shows the number of uninsured children in the state is on the rise, from just over 4% in 2016 to 5.6% in 2019.

Loretta Alexander, health policy director at Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, which released the report, said poverty can play a role in parents and children going without health coverage.

"And we know that families in poverty have a lot of other struggles," Alexander observed. "They move a lot. Let's say if they were on Medicaid, and the Medicaid agency reaches out to them for renewal or for information or something, and they don't get the communication. They're going to have their case terminated if they don't get information back to the agency in time."

In 2019 statewide, 151,000 children were living in poverty, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. Alexander pointed out Arkansas children in families with incomes up to 200% of the federal poverty level are eligible for Medicaid coverage.

The report showed just since 2018, the number of children who may have untreated health issues because of a lack of insurance has grown by nearly 10,000.

Alexander emphasized making sure kids are able to access affordable health care is crucial for their well-being throughout childhood.

"Insurance helps mothers to get the prenatal care needed for healthier birth outcomes," Alexander outlined. "After the child is born, coverage for well-child visits is important to get the developmental screenings and assessments that children need, as well as preventive care for infants and toddlers, and preschoolers."

Open enrollment through the health-insurance marketplace runs from Nov. 1 through Jan. 15. Eligible Arkansans can apply for Medicaid coverage any time of the year.