Pro-Kid Policy Plan — Child Welfare: Meet Patti

Families come in all shapes and kinds, but family leave policies shouldn’t.

At Voices for Children in Nebraska, our Pro-Kid Policy Plan is built on four pillars that shape a better future for kids. In our Child Welfare policy pillar, we believe that every child should grow up in a safe, supportive environment with the stability they need to thrive. When children experience abuse, neglect, or instability, the consequences can last a lifetime. That’s why our child welfare work centers on keeping families together whenever it is safely possible, improving the foster care system, and ensuring kids who have been in state care have the resources and opportunities they deserve to thrive for a lifetime.

In Child Welfare, we advocate for policies that strengthen prevention, increase transparency, and prioritize permanency for children. This means taking on issues like reducing reliance on congregate care and expanding family-based placements, improving oversight and accountability for child welfare agencies, supporting kinship and adoptive families through fair benefits and leave policies, and ensuring youth in care have access to education, health care, and legal protections.

These aren’t abstract ideas. They are real changes that impact real children and real families. And sometimes, those changes start with one person who refuses to accept the status quo.

Patti Koraleski still remembers the moment so many years ago when she learned her employer’s maternity leave policy didn’t apply to adoptive parents.

“I was outraged,” Patti recalls. “I had been a long-term employee, saving sick leave for years, and suddenly I was told adoption didn’t count. I appealed, lost, appealed again, and finally was told, ‘If you don’t like it—do something about it.’ So…I did.”

With no experience in lawmaking, Patti reached out to Voices for Children for guidance. “I had no idea what I was doing—I was simply mad and on a mission,” she says. Voices for Children helped her navigate the legislative process, connect with senators, and rally support. Patti testified at the Capitol, terrified but determined, with other adoptive parents and even a few little kids in tow.

The bill passed. Nebraska law changed to ensure adoptive families could access the same leave benefits as biological parents.

“I heard from so many adoptive parents afterward about what it meant to them,” Patti says. “It was common sense. But before that, it wasn’t the law.”

Today, Patti serves on the executive committee of the Voices for Children board, continuing to give back and to stay in the fight for children’s futures. Her story is a powerful reminder that policy wins for kids and families can become so embedded in our systems that we forget it used to be different. Now, most Nebraskans assume family leave applies to adoption—but that wasn’t always true. It took advocacy, persistence, skill, strategy, and partnership to make it happen.

That’s what our Child Welfare pillar is all about: building a system where fairness and support for loving families isn’t the exception; it’s the norm. Whether it’s identifying supportive resources to keep families together, improving foster care oversight, or ensuring adoptive parents have equal rights, we work to make Nebraska a place where every child can grow up safe and loved.