Date: April 28-30, 2026

Location: Kansas City, KS

This article reports on the introduction of the Global Child Thrive Reauthorization Act of 2025, a bipartisan bill in the U.S. Congress designed to expand and deepen early childhood development efforts in some of the world’s poorest countries.

The article describes how hundreds of children across the United States have been left behind — in foster care, with relatives, or neighbors — after their Venezuelan parents were deported, often under sweeping immigration enforcement measures.

The article reports that President Trump secured $25 million in federal funding to strengthen support for youth in foster care, particularly focusing on those aging out of the system who often face heightened risks of homelessness, unemployment, a

Building on a presentation invited for a Kilbrandon Children’s Research webinar on media representations of children and young people in the care and criminal justice system, this article discusses the legacies of Canadian ‘care’ practices premised on violent assimilation and erasure.

This article from BBC discusses how a number of individuals adopted as children into the United States are now at risk of deportation because their citizenship status was never formally secured.

The piece argues that while the U.S.

This Reuters article reports that the Trump administration is offering unaccompanied migrant children in U.S. custody a one-time stipend of US $2,500 to voluntarily return to their countries of origin.

This Washington Post article focuses on how ICE officers are ramping up arrests in the United States, leaving hundreds of migrant children to be sent to federal shelters.

This paper outlines a research agenda to guide the initial stages of work of the new Notre Dame Strengthening Families (NDSF) Research Initiative in the U.S. This initiative is focused on building knowledge around the economics of families and evidence-based ways to promote and strengthen healthy families.