"Lawyers have not been able to reach the parents of 545 children who had been separated from their families by US border officials between 2017 and 2018, according to a Tuesday court filing," says this article from CNN.

On 20-21 October 2020, the Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP) and the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work (GCSW) held two-day virtual conversations with organizers, activists, scholars, and community leaders to strategize innovative ways to create a society in which the forcible separation of children from their families is no longer an acceptable solution for families in need.

Join the Center for the Study of Social Policy and the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work on October 20-21, 2020 from 1-4PM ET for the inaugural convening of the newly launched upEND Movement, which will bring together organizers, activists, scholars, and community leaders to have provocative conversations and strategize innovative ways to create a society in which the forcible separation of children from their families is no longer an acceptable solution for families in need.

Advocates in the U.S. "are hoping to see a bill included that would prevent young people from aging out of foster care during the crisis and allow those who have already aged out since it started to reenter," says the article.

The biennial Together for Families Conference is a unique event that connects various stakeholders from across the U.S. and Canada in the Family Support and Strengthening Field to focus on quality practice. The conference will be held virtually from 13-16 October 2020.  

This article from The Atlantic explores the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on foster care in the United States.

This study evaluates the association between children placed in out-of-home care and neighborhood-level factors using eight years of administrative data.

In October, the Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP) will use their regular monthly webinar time to provide a Strengthening Families introduction for people who are new to the protective factors framework and the Strengthening Families approach.

In this commentary, the authors explain how current circumstances reinforce the need for systemic change within statutory child welfare systems and the benefits that would accrue by implementing a continuum of services that combine universal supports with early intervention strategies.

This article calls on attorneys in the U.S. to learn from the fallout of the pandemic, retain the best responsive practices, and use the lessons learned from this crisis to transform dependency cases, and the child welfare system writ large, into what families need and deserve.