If you could pay to prevent child abuse and neglect, would you? How about preventing kids from dropping out of school? What about juvenile crime and delinquency? For many of you the easy answer to this question is YES. But for many years here in Nebraska, our government (from the…...
Racial Disparities in Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice
You probably already know this, but we here at Voices for Children in Nebraska are passionate about justice and fairness for all of Nebraska’s kids. This passion drives us to examine troubling trends in the hopes that solutions can be found for even the most complicated and longstanding of challenges…...
Unnecessary Costs: Juvenile Incarceration in Nebraska
In light of the release of the No Place for Kids Report earlier today, we’re looking at some of the Nebraska-specific numbers. During the 2009-2010 state fiscal year (SFY), Nebraska spent over $17 million dollars on its two centers for juvenile incarceration – the youth residential treatment centers (YRTC) in…...
To privatize, or not to privatize
To privatize, or not to privatize – that isn’t the question. Hopefully Shakespeare will forgive us for misusing his famous soliloquy, but we couldn’t come up with a better way to summarize our reaction to recent coverage of the ongoing controversy surrounding Nebraska’s child welfare and juvenile services reform…...
At the legislature: Testimony on LB 112
Voices for Children testified before the Transportation and Telecommunications Committee today on LB 112 regarding transport of children in the care of the lead agencies. “Re: Support for LB 112 Allowing Child Welfare Caseworkers to Transport Clients Voices for Children in Nebraska supports LB 112, which allows caseworkers for child…...
At the legislature: Testimony on LB 79 and 94
Voices for Children testified on two bills today, LB 94 and LB 79. LB 94 – Case File Reading by Adoptive Parents We support LB 94, which provides adoptive parents with the opportunity to read case files and promotes full disclosure before adoptions are finalized. Voices for Children’s support for…...