May is National Foster Care Month, a time for Nebraskans to bring awareness to the needs of our children in foster care, and to acknowledge the incredible dedication of the foster families in our state. On a typical day in 2014, there were 3,100 Nebraska kids living in an out-of-home…...
We Never Outgrow the Need for Family
This Saturday is National Adoption Day! All through November, advocates, families, and communities from across the country have celebrated the importance of adoptive families with the goal of raising awareness of barriers to adoption for children in foster care. This year’s theme is “We Never Outgrow the Need for Family,”…...
YJAM series: Choosing not to Prosecute Children
In elementary school, children are still learning to use the dictionary, parse words and stories for meaning, and multiply and divide fractions. They have barely begun to explore American history and civics, much less crime, punishment, and legal rights and consequences. However, Nebraska has no minimum age for charging children…...
Bipartisan Movements in Federal Child Welfare Legislation
With the 2016 session of the Nebraska Legislature just around the corner, our policy team is gearing up to continue building pathways to opportunity for children in our state. Although much of our work at Voices is centered on advancing policies in the Unicameral, we also monitor federal legislation that…...
Screening for Risk: the Good, the Bad, and the Unknown in Nebraska’s RAI
A couple weeks ago, we posted an introduction to the Risk Assessment Instrument (RAI) used by probation officers to make detention determinations. We were left with a question: does the RAI accurately predict risk to miss court or reoffend before the first court appearance, in a way that will help…...
Pro-Kid Policy Changes 2015: Child Welfare
In Nebraska, bills that advance out of the Legislature and are signed by the Governor typically become law three months after the Legislature has adjourned sine die, unless the bill contains an emergency clause, rendering it in effect upon approval by the Governor. With all bills passed during the 2015…...
Happy Grandparents Day!
This week, we are celebrating Grandparents Day! Grandparents are an important part of many families, and they are especially important to the 2.6 million American children who live in homes where a grandparent is their primary caregiver. Living arrangements with grandparents arise for a variety of reasons, such as financial hardship,…...
