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Progress has been made, so let’s stay the course

  There are two key objectives at the core of any child welfare system: preventing child abuse and neglect by strengthening families and responding quickly, but thoughtfully, to reports of child maltreatment in order to minimize trauma. Last month, the Foster Care Review Office released its 2013 Annual Report, which…...

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On the Outskirts of Hope, 50 Years Later

“Unfortunately, many Americans live on the outskirts of hope – some because of their poverty, and some because of their color, and all too many because of both. Our task is to help replace their despair with opportunity.  It will not be a short or easy struggle, no single weapon or…...

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Hot off the presses! The Kids Count 2013 Report

The 2013 Kids Count in Nebraska Report has arrived at our Voices for Children offices! Even though all of us here have our copies and are delightfully flipping through them already, we cannot wait to share the report with you. We will begin sharing and distributing the report at our…...

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Foster care reimbursement rate

Responsibility for the care and safety of children rests primarily with biological or adoptive parents.  However, sometimes concerns about abuse and neglect arise removing children from their homes is the best way to keep them safe. Studies show that where children are placed is directly related to the outcomes children…...

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College Savings Issue Brief

  Postsecondary education and training is now more important than ever for individual success and societal progress. Investments in higher education provide significant returns in employment levels, financial earnings, tax revenues, health, upward mobility, and overall well-being. Current projections indicate that demand for educated workers in Nebraska is projected to…...

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Kids Count 2013 Report

  We’re excited to announce that the 21st edition of the Kids Count in Nebraska Report will be released January 14 and 15, 2014. The report continues our new focus on visually representing the data — think graphs, charts, and bullet points and not paragraphs of text. We will be…...

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Kids for Cash has lessons for Nebraska

It’s not every day that the juvenile justice system makes national news. But just a few years ago, a scandal rocked Luzerne County Pennsylvania: judges had accepted nearly $2.6 million from private, for-profit juvenile facilities. Now known as the “Kids for Cash” scandal, this incident created shockwaves across the entire…...

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The consequences aren’t minor

  This month we’re taking a look at a strange phenomenon: Nebraska kids that our state treats exactly like adults. We’ve already taken a look at who these youth are and how they come to be considered adults, but we have yet to really delve down into why we’re so…...

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National Adoption Day

  Something incredible happened last month. 15-year-old Davion Navar Henry Only’s plea for an adoptive family went viral, generating a flood of 10,000 inquiries from prospective parents in the US and abroad. But making a child’s dreams come true doesn’t require a national media blitz.   It doesn’t require National Adoption Month…...

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When does a kid become an adult?

  When does a kid become an adult? Does it magically happen on their 18th birthday? When they graduate from high school? When they get their first job? When they’re financially independent of their parents? Here in Nebraska, and throughout the United States, our laws often struggle to answer that…...

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