Providing effective mental health services to unaccompanied children released from federal immigration custody is both critically important and incredibly challenging. Developed by children’s rights attorneys and mental health experts on trauma and immigration, this Guide is grounded in the voices and experiences of unaccompanied children.

Public Hearing: Inter-American Commission on Human Rights

Date: October 22

Time: 4:00 pm EDT

In just a few years, a Michigan woman took in millions of dollars, faking adoptions and ruining families’ lives along the way.

When youths get close to aging out of foster care, it’s important to plan for emancipation. Aging out of foster care — or emancipating — is the termination of court jurisdiction over youths formally in foster care.

Some parents surrender custody because a teen's behavior is out of control or because of escalating family conflict. In fact, “child behavior” was the reason given for 46% of all foster care removals of youth older than 12 — and the only reason for out-of-home placements for 28% of teens.

New Mexico Children Youth and Family Department Secretary Barbara J. Vigil also promised to enshrine federal law prioritizing tribal members in adoptions of Native American children into the practices of her department and state law.

This report captures overall and U.S. state-specific findings, disaggregated by race/ethnicity, for COVID-19-associated orphanhood and death of grandparent caregivers. High rates of orphanhood, marked disparities, and state-specific differences show the overlooked burden among children at greatest risk, in states most affected.

The number of U.S. children orphaned during the COVID-19 pandemic may be larger than previously estimated, and the toll has been far greater among Black and Hispanic Americans, a new study suggests. More than half the children who lost a primary caregiver during the pandemic belonged to those two racial groups, which make up about 40% of the U.S. population, according to the study published 7 October, 2021 by the medical journal Pediatrics.

The Technical Advisor, Economic Empowerment provides technical support and leadership to IRC’s Economic Empowerment (EE) programs in nearly 30 U.S. cities and, in a more limited capacity, in support of IRC’s work in Europe.

IRC is seeking a Refugee Cash Assistance (RCA) Eligibility Specialist.