Michael FitzGerald

3 weeks ago | imprintnews.org | Michael FitzGerald |Michael Fitzgerald

The Imprint’s recent five-part series, Medicated in Foster Care: Who’s Looking Out? revealed that states across the country have failed to properly monitor and curtail the heavy, haphazard reliance on psychiatric medication prescribed to foster youth. Dozens of young people with histories of trauma described “pain and anguish muffled, not healed,” by these quick-fix drugs.

1 month ago | imprintnews.org | Sara Tiano |Michael FitzGerald |Michael Fitzgerald

On a Thursday in late March, department leaders in the U.S. Administration for Children and Families gathered at a meeting. The warning they received from higher-ups was blunt: On Monday, ACF will look nothing like it does today. With White House officials and business tycoon Elon Musk on camera calling to “delete” federal agencies and leave bureaucrats “traumatically affected,” cuts to social services appeared imminent.

1 month ago | imprintnews.org | Michael FitzGerald |Michael Fitzgerald

Hannah Van Dinter lived in a homeless shelter with two young kids beneath Washington’s snow-capped Olympic Mountains when she learned about Head Start. The landmark early childhood education program has served millions of working poor families with young children since it was established 60 years ago. They were a good fit. The family of four lacked steady household income, and they kept running into “bad situations,” including a visit from CPS, she said.

1 month ago | imprintnews.org | Michael FitzGerald |Michael Fitzgerald

The Trump Administration’s latest cost-cutting blitz has eliminated millions of dollars in funding for the nonprofit overseeing popular volunteer programs that match Court-Appointed Special Advocates and guardians ad litem with abused and neglected kids. In a statement posted on its website Wednesday, the Seattle-based National CASA/GAL Association for Children announced it was among hundreds of U.S. Department of Justice grantees that had received funding termination notices this week.

1 month ago | imprintnews.org | Michael FitzGerald |Michael Fitzgerald

A New York appeals court has upheld the legality of “host family homes” for children — a model of temporary care in which struggling parents place their kids with volunteer caregivers who are vetted by nonprofits but do not have to be licensed as foster parents. Critics say the model skirts longstanding social service oversight laws and could result in inadequate care or unnecessary family separation.