What’s New?

Expanded Tax Credit Offering Monthly Payments to Families Start This Week!

Posted on July 16, 2021

This week, dollars are being deposited into the bank accounts of families across the country, including New Jersey. This influx of federal funds given directly to parents is predicted to cut child poverty in the Garden State by nearly one-third.

To qualify, parents must have a child 17 or younger listed as deductions on their taxes. The child’s age is determined by how old they are by the end of the 2021 calendar year. Full credit, up to $3,000 per child for children between the ages of six and 17, and $3,600 per child under the age of six, will be allocated to single filers who earn up to $112,500, or joint filers making up to $150,000 a year. Payments decrease for those making more, phasing out for those earning more than $200,000 as a single-payer or $400,000 as a couple. Payments are part of the American Rescue Plan.

There are no work requirements, and those without a permanent home may still claim the credits.

Families with children under the age of six will receive up to $300 per month from now through December. For each child between the ages of six and 17, parents will receive $250 per month. The Internal Revenue Services will deposit these funds into the bank account or mail checks out, using information from their 2020 tax information or their stimulus check. The other half of the funds will be received after filing their tax return next year.

These funds do not impact any other public benefits like SNAP that the family may receive and will not be considered taxable income when the parents file their tax return next year.

Individuals who have not filed a tax return because their income is below the amount of reportable income and who have not applied for the stimulus checks have to register with the IRS to receive the child tax credit at www.childtaxcredit.gov.

Meet Lauren

*Note, not a real person. The scenario is hypothetical only.

Lauren is a teacher and a hard-working single mom with three kids ages seven, ten, and 12. Last year, she made $55,000, as reported on her taxes. Due to the expanded child tax credit  under the American Rescue Plan, Lauren will receive $750 per month, or $250 per child over the age of six, totaling $4,500 by December. When Lauren files her taxes next April, she will receive another $4,500 in her tax return.

Una Guia Basica Para Educacion Especial

Posted on October 29, 2018

La intención de este folleto corto es de servir como guía de referencia para personas que tienen preguntas sobre la educación especial. No es la intención ofrecer consejos ni guía legal. Para una explicación profunda de cualquier aspecto legal del proceso de la educación especial, se le recomienda a los padres o guardianes comunicarse con el Kidlaw Legal Resource Center (Centro del Recurso Legal de Niños) de Advocatesfor Children of New Jersey (ACNJ). Abogados del personal pueden proporcionar publicaciones informativas y asistencia limitada a padres o tutores individuales. Las consultas se puedan dar en español.

Contact:
Nina Peckman, Esq. (habla español)
E-mail: npeckman@acnj.org
Phone: 973-643-3876
Fax: 973-643-9153

Basic Guide to Special Education – English

Posted on October 29, 2018

This guide is intended as a reference for people who have questions about special education for a child. It summarizes the basic procedures, services and rights of children to an education and represents current federal and state laws and regulations. It is not intended to offer advice or legal guidance. For an expanded, legally-grounded explanation of any aspect of the special education process, parents/caregivers should contact Advocates for Children of New Jersey’s Kidlaw Legal Resource Center. Staff attorneys can provide printed information and limited personal assistance to individual parents/caregivers. Spanish consultations are available.

Contact:
Nina Peckman, Esq. (speaks Spanish)
E-mail: npeckman@acnj.org
Phone: 973-643-3876
Fax: 973-643-9153

Social Media Toolkit: Child Care Enrollment Bill

Posted on July 16, 2021

Small child care business —both center-based and family child care — need stable funding to stay in business if we need them to care for and educate children from low-income families.

Paying providers based on a program’s enrollment and not attendance can help keep centers from closing doors, lead to stronger quality programs, increased program access to children and families and money to address workforce issues. It's time the state supports a sustainable business model for these child care providers.

Here are three things you can do to urge Governor Murphy to sign into law the child care enrollment bill A4746/S3947 today!

1. Use this quick form to send an email to the Governor and tell him to sign the child care enrollment bill A4746/S3947.

2. Tweet or Share on Facebook.
Take a photo of your child care program and post it to social media. State how you've been impacted by America’s child care crisis and ask Governor Murphy to to sign the child care enrollment bill A4746/S3947. Be sure to tag the Governor on Twitter or Facebook.

3. Share with your network. Urge your colleagues, family and friends to support small child care businesses. Use the blurb below and ask them to join you in ensuring Governor Murphy sign this law.

Sample Email Language:

Right now, Governor Murphy has a chance to sign into law a bill that will provide funding stability to child care programs—both center-based and family child care—small businesses that care for and educate children from low-income families. This bill will change the payment practice by paying providers based on a program’s enrollment and not its attendance.

Visit acnj.org to send a message to the Governor. It takes less than a minute!

The previous payment practice, based on attendance, left programs uncertain of their month-to-month payment from the State. This was an unsustainable business model before the pandemic and it would be for the future of the state's child care system if programs return to a flawed system of payment.

The policy change in this bill will be a lifeline for many of these small businesses, that are primarily owned by women, many of whom are women of color. It will provide them with the peace of mind that comes with knowing that their state funding will be predictable every month — and that can lead to stronger quality programs, increased program access to children and families and money to address workforce issues.

Tell Governor Murphy that child care programs and families cannot wait any longer and urge him to sign the child care enrollment bill S3947/A4746! This “essential” industry deserves nothing less!

BLOG: Kinship Care and New Jersey’s Revised Kinship Legal Guardianship Act

Posted on July 13, 2021

By Legal Intern Kelly Monahan

Benefits of Kinship Care 

Kinship care – placing children with relatives rather than non-relative foster parents – is associated with significant benefits for children and youth, including improved mental and behavioral health. Specifically, kinship care may help mitigate the trauma of removal when children are placed with relative caregivers who they know and with whom they share a relationship. As a result, children and youth in kinship care are less likely to experience behavioral challenges compared to children and youth in other placement settings.

Children and youth in kinship care also experience greater placement stability compared to youth in other placement settings, which can help improve permanency outcomes, academic performance and development of meaningful connections. The reduction in placement disruptions for children in kinship care is associated with kinship placements more closely resembling the culture of the child's family of origin, enabling children to preserve their cultural identity and community connections. In addition, relative caregivers may be more willing to keep siblings together than non-relative caregivers, which can provide integral social and emotional support that may ease children’s transition to a new placement and prevent placement disruptions. Overall, children and youth with relational ties with caregivers report viewing their placements more positively, are more likely to report feeling loved and are less likely to report having tried to leave or run away compared to youth in non-relative foster care and group homes.

In addition, kinship care may reduce the time children and youth spend in foster care before achieving permanency and promote post-permanency stability, as children exiting from kinship care are less likely to re-enter foster care following reunification and guardianship compared to youth exiting from non-kin placements. Thus, kinship care has the potential to reduce the duration of out-of-home placements and help children and youth achieve permanency. 

The New Jersey Kinship Legal Guardianship Act

Kinship care may be used as a temporary placement for children and youth or a pathway to an alternative type of permanency, known in New Jersey as kinship legal guardianship (KLG), where the relative becomes the child’s permanent guardian. Unlike adoption, KLG grants the child permanency while preserving parental rights – including the right to visitation and the right to regain custody of the children.

On July 2, 2021, Governor Murphy signed into law an amended KLG statute aimed at enhancing family resiliency and keeping families together when the state Division of Child Protection & Permanency (CP&P) files a court action to place a child into foster care because of abuse and/or neglect. The revised KLG statute prioritizes placement with relatives over non-relatives by requiring the Division to “make reasonable efforts to place the child with a suitable relative or person who has a kinship relationship” with the child. The KLG statute also reduces the time children and youth must reside in kinship care before becoming eligible for KLG from twelve consecutive months to six consecutive months, or nine of the last fifteen months. CP&P is also no longer required to prioritize adoption over KLG in cases where reunification has not been successful. Under the amended statute, more children and youth are eligible for a permanent KLG arrangement and sooner.

Challenges to Kinship Care and Guardianship: The Need for More Supports

 Despite the benefits of kinship care and the potential benefits of the revised KLG statute, additional supports are needed to support permanency and reunification. The reduced timeline for when a caregiver may pursue KLG may create ambiguity regarding permanency planning for cases where children have been in out-of-home placement for less than a year. Under federal and state law, CP&P must make reasonable efforts to work toward parental reunification for one year following the child’s out-of-home placement. In those cases, CP&P can concurrently case plan where the Division prioritizes reunification while planning for an alternative permanency goal, such as KLG, if reunification is unsuccessful.

Under current practice in New Jersey, CP&P works with the child and the parent or legal guardian to identify the services to be provided to achieve reunification or another permanency goal. Ideally, the kinship caregiver should be part of this process, especially if a KLG arrangement becomes the permanent goal. But relationships between kinship caregivers and parents may be tenuous as the relative assumes custody of and responsibility for caring for their children. Without sufficient training and support, kinship legal guardians may have difficulty navigating complex relationships with the child’s biological parents and may be unprepared to assist children maintaining relationships with their parents. Children and youth in kinship care are also less likely to reunify with their parents. Additional supports, including relative caregiver training and effective family communication and engagement strategies, such as Solution-Based Casework, Family Team Meetings and child welfare mediation, are needed to achieve the goals of promoting family preservation and resiliency.