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Fosters and the Orphan Tax: How States Take Social Security from Foster Youth ________________________________________

Adoption, Foster and Kinship Care, All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, Child Protection, Children's Rights, Mikes Favorite Posts, Public Policy, Reporting and News - MN Specific, Reporting and News - US Based, Statistics

Most foster youth only discover years later that Social Security benefits meant for them were taken by counties to “reimburse” foster care costs, leaving them to age out with no savings, no housing deposit, and no money for school or a car. With up to one third experiencing homelessness by their mid 20s and earning far less than their peers, every dollar matters. This post explains how the so called “orphan tax” works, why the complexity argument is specious, and how existing Social Security and ABLE style accounts could be used to protect foster youths’ benefits instead of padding agency budgets.

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Child Abuse, Foster Care, and Youth Self-Harm and Suicide

Aces and Trauma, All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, CASA, GAL and Child Protection, Child Abuse and Deaths, Child self harm and suicide, Mental Health + Over Medication, Mikes Favorite Posts, Public Policy, Reporting and News - US Based

Research across foster care, ACEs, and maltreatment shows that abused and systems‑involved children face dramatically higher risks of self‑harm and suicide. This post walks through key studies and calls for concrete changes in child welfare policy and practice to prevent avoidable deaths.

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The Physics of Child Protection in America

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, CASA, GAL and Child Protection, Child Protection, Children's Rights, Mikes Favorite Posts, NEGLECT, Public Policy, Reporting and News - US Based

Child protection in America behaves like a complex system engineered for surveillance, not support. Poverty, racism, and weak safety nets keep generating the same tragedies. What would happen if we rebuilt it around children’s rights, prevention, and healing?

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Can Our Relationship Survive This Debate About Child Safety? – CPS reform and racism

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, Child Abuse and Deaths, Child Protection, Children's Rights, Featured Articles, Mikes Favorite Posts, Reporting and News - US Based

Can a working relationship survive a fundamental disagreement about child safety? On our CASA board, a Black single mother and a white older man wrestle with whether CPS protects children or destroys families. This post explores that conflict and what it tells us about fixing a child protection system that is both racist and, at times, fatally timid.

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Free and Discounted Resources for Youth (+ Holiday Gifting)

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Children and youth in foster care often have needs that are not available to be filled by the County or their caregivers. Christmas and the holiday season can be hard on families with limited resources. If you know of a foster child or foster family who would benefit from the resources on this page, send this link to them and share this page widely.

Do you have examples of resources not shown here? Send them to info@invisiblechildren.org with FOSTER RESOURCES in the subject line

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In Texas 2024, only 10 Children Died of Abuse (248 died of neglect)

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, Child Abuse and Deaths, Child Protection, Mikes Favorite Posts, Public Policy, Reporting and News - US Based, Stunning Statistics

Texas child neglect fatalities 2024: The Most Common Cause of Child Death in Texas Isn’t defined as Abuse. The Center for disease control defines child abuse with clarity as any act of physical, sexual, or emotional harm including neglect, done towards a minor under the age of 18 by an adult that holds a custodial or parental role (About Child Abuse and Neglect | Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention, 2024).

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Making Life More Miserable For the Most Vulnerable Children In America

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, CASA, GAL and Child Protection, Child Abuse and Deaths, Child self harm and suicide, LGBTQ, Mikes Favorite Posts, Public Policy, Reporting and News - US Based

The head of the Federal Administration for Children and Families (Adam Alex), is attacking LGBTQ+ Foster Families over youth gender identity. Life is hard enough for foster families and the struggling LGBTQ+ children trying to rebuild lives filled with abuse and neglect in their birth homes and a growing sense of unwelcome in our communities. Federal policies demonizing queer children gins up hatred and legitimizes fear and violence against almost ten percent of Americans.

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The Importance of Foster Youth Rights (find your State here)

Adoption, Foster and Kinship Care, All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, CASA, GAL and Child Protection, Featured Articles, Mikes Favorite Posts, Public Policy, Reporting and News - MN Specific, Reporting and News - US Based, The States

This article is derived from Hana Ikramuddin’s excellent Imprint News Article about Fosters not being notified of their rights – Read the Imprint article here.

Hana tells us the story of AIayna Ghost’s years in Foster Care from ages 7 to 18 and how she ran away almost every year looking for her family. From the article: In foster care, she did not learn she had an older sister until a social worker told her at age 13.

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Struggles for Foster Care Children in Education (podcast #4 in Foster Series)

Aces and Trauma, Adoption, Foster and Kinship Care, All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, CASA, GAL and Child Protection, Education, Featured Articles, Mikes Favorite Posts, PODCAST & STREAMING, Reporting and News - US Based

how foster youth are systematically failed within America’s education system. They expose how constant school changes, untreated trauma, and misdiagnoses isolate these children, often pushing them into special education, overmedication, or even the juvenile justice system

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Worker Bees Speaking Out

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, CASA, GAL and Child Protection, Child Protection, Media, Mikes Favorite Posts, Public Policy, Reporting and News - US Based

Many reading this post may not be in the job you are doing this time next year. DOGE and other Federal policy changes have determined that the work being done for at-risk children and families is either wasteful or like DEI the wrong approach to public policy. Attorney General Pam Bondi recently stated that significantly less than 20% of funding cuts will be reversed

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Why Children Need Mandated Reporters

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, Child Abuse and Deaths, Mikes Favorite Posts, Reporting and News - US Based

https://invisiblechildren.org/2013/07/04/mandated-reporting-or-basic-responsibility-its-absence-is-killing-wisconsin-pennsylvania-children/ Facebook Replacing Mandated Reporters for Child Abuse? Don’t Blame The Mandated Reporter (why child abuse reporting is sporadic) Fear and Firing of Mandated Reporters of Child Abuse Being A Mandated Reporter (and what it means) Reporting Maltreatment Of Children; How Minnesota Does It (State Statute – 626.556) Tolerating Child Death in Minnesota (thank you…

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A Courageous Vote! Thank You Minnesota Guardian ad Litem Board For Saving CASA Volunteer Program

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, CASA, GAL and Child Protection, Child Abuse and Deaths, KARA News and Events, Mikes Favorite Posts, Reporting and News - MN Specific

Thank you, Former MN Supreme Court Chief Justice Kathleen Blatz, for your comments and questions at this board meeting. Your words enlightened board members of the need for an open and objective investigation into the CASA volunteer program in the effort to provide safety and stability to Minnesota’s abused and neglected children.

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Inside the Henn Cty Guardian Ad Litem Office Today

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, CASA, GAL and Child Protection, Child Protection, Mikes Favorite Posts, Reporting and News - MN Specific

The push to diminish/eliminate the CASA Volunteer workforce of Hennepin County’s Guardian ad Litem Program is impacting office morale for both paid and volunteer GALS. We’ve gone from about 250 volunteers to 32 remaining under new leadership in the last five years. CASA’s supporting program, CASAMN has over 200 volunteers waiting to be GALs –…

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Saying Goodbye to the CASA Guardian ad Litem Volunteer Program

All Posts from Kids at Risk Action, CASA, GAL and Child Protection, Child Abuse and Deaths, KARA News and Events, Mikes Favorite Posts, Reporting and News - MN Specific

SAYING GOODBYE TO 1000’S OF VOLUNTEER CHILD ADVOCATES & Community Involvement & Trust In One More Community Institution. Since 1981, thousands of community volunteers have spent thousands of hours working to better the lives of Minnesota’s at-risk children.  End this program, they will disappear and no more will follow.

This will result in weakened community awareness, less community involvement and an incalculable loss of…