Children's Alliance News

Live From D.C.

In a whirlwind day, Children's Alliance staff Teresa Mosqueda and Annique Lennon, visited 10 of our 11 Congressional delegation members to draw attention to the health of Washington's children. While conversations about reauthorizing the popular and bipartisan federal State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) are not gracing the headlines lately, SCHIP is set to expire in March 2009. Comprehensive SCHIP reauthorization that addresses critical priorities for kids must be passed before April to ensure that states are able to maintain and expand coverage to millions of uninsured children. Washington's families are depending on Congress to pass a comprehensive SCHIP bill within the next eight months. Our state's Cover All Kids law relies in large part on federal funds to match our state's financial contribution. We will keep you updated as the issue moves through Congress. If you're not yet a member of the Children's Action Network sign up now so you can take quick and effective action to support SCHIP!

The Children's Alliance health policy team was in D.C. to meet with a national group of advocates working to expand access to healthcare for kids in eight different states. Washington State was often referenced as an example of successful coalition building with advocates and state partners. All eyes are on Washington as other states continue to look to us for models of how to get all kids covered.

Court Holds State Accountable

Children living in foster care need what all kids need: love, stability, health, safety and a path to create a successful adult life. For too long in Washington State children living in foster care haven't gotten what they need. A court decision this past week ordered the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) to keep the promises made to foster kids in the 2004 settlement of the Braam v. Washington lawsuit.

The Braam lawsuit is a class-action lawsuit brought on behalf of children in WA's foster care system. In 2004 DSHS and the plaintiffs reached a settlement agreement that includes major reforms to the foster care system. On June 30th the court found that DSHS has failed to comply with the agreement in four key areas and ordered the Department to change their practices as well as provide accurate data regarding foster children, or face ongoing court monitoring.

You can read the Columbia Legal Services press release about the decision on our website. Children's Alliance Executive Director, Paola Maranan was quoted in an article on the court action in The Olympian. For more links to press coverage and details on the court decision visit www.braamkids.org.

Making Child Welfare Work for All Kids

Kids of color, particularly African American, Native American and Latino children are more likely to enter into the child welfare system, and once there, they stay in the system longer than white kids. This information is not a surprise to child advocates or communities of color, but it has now been verified by a report issued by the Washington State Institute for Public Policy for the statewide Racial Disproportionality Advisory Committee.

The report found that African American, Native American and Latino children are impacted disproportionately at each decision point as they move through the child welfare system. This finding held true even when researchers compared the experiences of white children and children of color who come from families with similar economic status and family structures.

In 2007, the Children's Alliance and other partners successfully lobbied the legislature to pass Substitute House Bill 1472. The legislation created the Disproportionality Advisory Committee and tasked the members to determine to what degree disproportionality exists in Washington's child welfare system, and to come up with a plan to reduce disproportionality.

In a press release on 6/26/08 the Children's Alliance Executive Director Paola Maranan, who serves on the Committee, said the results of the new report are not surprising, but that it provides critical data that can be used to fuel changes in policy and practice that will make the system work for all kids.

"We have hard work ahead of us to hone in on the strategies, the programs and the actions needed to fix the child welfare system in this state—particularly as it affects children of color. The Children’s Alliance firmly believes that if we can fix the child welfare system for children of color we’ll go a long ways towards fixing the system for all children."

Articles or editorials in the Seattle P-I, the Bellingham Herald, the Seattle Times and other media have covered the findings in the report. If you'd like to receive a twice a week review of media coverage of kids issues in Washington, subscribe now to the Children's Alliance Media Digest.