The NJ Department of Education just released its guidelines on how school districts can begin to plan how best to provide education to their students in the next school year. "The Road Back: Restart and Recovery for Education," outlines the four principles that school districts must follow in moving forward, including:
Ensuring a conducive and learning atmosphere;
Supporting educational leaders with planning;
Providing policy guidance and necessary funding to schools; and
Securing continuity of learning.
Governor Murphy said in today's press conference, that "no one size fits
all" can be taken as school districts move forward. That means that how
children learn come September, will likely look different from one
community to another.
On June 25, 2020, Assemblywoman Gabriela Mosquera, chair of the Women and Children Committee, held a committee hearing, inviting parents, advocates and child care business owners to share the impact that COVID-19 has had on child care. As New Jersey proceeds through this pandemic, it's essential that we have a child care system in place for children and families. Child care is the workforce behind the workforce.
ACNJ would like to thank the incredible group of child care advocates who testified yesterday on why saving child care is critically important to children, working families and our economy.
On June 24, President Donald Trump issued an executive order in order to strengthen the federal child welfare system. This order, effective immediately, seeks to reduce the need for foster care and the time spent in it, while facilitating achievement of permanency through reunification, adoption or guardianship.
Currently, there are over 400,000 children in foster care nationwide, and many of those children have been waiting to be adopted. Additionally, 20,000 children age out of foster care every year without finding a permanent home. Per the executive order, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will be responsible for “improving partnerships, improving resources and improving oversight.”
To help ensure that children in foster care, HHS has been directed to:
collect data on the demographics of children in foster care and foster families, foster parent retention and certification time, the number of foster homes needed to serve children, and the time it takes across the states to complete certification for foster care and adoption.
provide guidelines on state agency partnerships with local public, private, faith-based, and community organizations. In addition to publishing data that can be used to aid services, HHS will hold states accountable, “to the extent consistent with applicable law,” for using organizations to help recruit and support foster parents.
The Child Welfare League of America (CWLA) predicts these partnerships will be useful for nonprofits struggling to stay afloat amid the pandemic and recession.
develop a plan to ensure kinship guardians and youth aging out of foster care can access the services available to them. This includes the urging of states to use federal funding for kinship guardianship agreements.
issue guidance on the flexible use of Title IV-E entitlements for quality legal representation of parents and children, as well as legal support staff.
use “all existing technical assistance” to promote the National Training and Development Curriculum. Additionally, it must increase availability of trauma-informed training by making it free and web-based.
require that IV-E reviews and Child and Family Services reviews adequately address things like reasonable efforts in preventing removal and establishing permanency and timeliness of Termination of Parental Rights filing.
collect the standards used across the states for risk assessments and, within 18 months, issue best practice standards.
conduct a study on the implementation of the 1994 Multiethnic Placement Act (MEPA), which bars discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin in placement. HHS must then issue guidance on implementation and the rights of parents, prospective parents, and children with disabilities.
By following these steps, the federal government hopes to help our most vulnerable children succeed.
In order to give all children a strong and equitable start in life, New Jersey must begin with an intentional focus on eliminating racial inequities and disparities in access to essential supports, according to a new report, Unlocking Potential, released today by Advocates for Children of New Jersey (ACNJ).
The statewide plan, funded by the Pritzker Children's Initiative (PCI), provides the action steps needed to achieve concrete targets related to early childhood development with the goal of ensuring an additional 25 percent of low-income infants and toddlers - 27,000 young children - will have access to high-quality services by 2023. These supports include access to quality child care, home visiting, health and mental health services.
Unlocking Potential is based on the belief that we all have a role to play in achieving equity and that supporting equal opportunities at the start of a child’s life is the first step in eliminating disparities that impact outcomes for babies, families and communities. The foundation for change is in place; the opportunity is now!
The importance of frequent, ongoing contact between children living in foster care and their parents and siblings cannot be overstated. Quality visits increase the likelihood of parent engagement and a successful reunification. Acknowledging this, the NJ Children in Court Improvement Committee created a visitation bench card with the applicable law and questions to ask at every hearing to ensure that frequent and appropriate visits occur between children living in foster care and their families. You can find a short video explaining the bench card here. In February 2020, the federal Children’s Bureau, an office of the federal Administration for Children & Families, issued an information memorandum, which outlined research, best practices and recommendations for quality family time.
COVID-19 has dramatically changed how families interact, since most visits are now occurring remotely. However, the pandemic cannot limit these important interactions if our goal is reunification. On March 27, 2020, Jerry Millner, Acting Director of the Children’s Bureau, wrote a letter to child welfare leaders stating that courts should not issue blanket orders reducing or suspending family time during COVID-19 and should hold child welfare agencies “accountable for ensuring that meaningful frequent family time continue.” While this task may be daunting, it is possible. And as New Jersey begins to reopen, there should be more opportunities to arrange for in-person family time in parks, backyards and other public spaces. All stakeholders need to think creatively and not accept the status quo as good enough.
The New Jersey Department of Children and Families (DCF) guidance concerning family visits indicated that parent-child and sibling visitation is “important now more than ever to reassure children that their parents and/or siblings are safe, and to maintain and strengthen family bonds and positive attachment during an otherwise uncertain time.” The guidance includes a list of age-appropriate activities to help parents and children connect through the screen, and some questions to ask when considering in-person visits. The information shared by DCF, as well as guidance from other organizations including the Children’s Bureau visitation resources can be shared with parents and resource parents. We all need to help parents and children make the most of remote visits while we work to arrange more in-person family time. See ACNJ fact sheet for more tips.
Updated as of July 13, 2020 - The New Jersey Department of Children and Families (DCF) has released new guidance regarding in-person family visitation. Read more here.
In order to give all children a strong and equitable start in life, New Jersey must begin with an intentional focus on eliminating racial inequities and disparities in access to essential supports, according to a new report, 
