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Statement on Passage of HB 290 – Child Fatality Review Panel – in Senate Health and Welfare Committee

A critical piece of legislation for children – the establishment of a review panel on child fatalities and near fatalities through HB 290 – moved one step closer to becoming law today. This measure – championed by Senator Denton and Representatives Burch and Wayne – will make a real difference in protecting children from dying due to abuse and neglect. It will provide a means to assess what we are doing well and how we [...]

By |2013-03-06T11:09:47-05:00March 6th, 2013|News Room|
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Senate: Support fatality review panel

This post originally appeared as a Letter to the Editor in the Courier Journal on February 27, 2013 A critical bill now stands before the Senate that would create a child fatality and near fatality review panel. The creation of this panel would be one of the biggest steps forward our state can take to identify trends and solutions to address child deaths and near deaths that occur as a result of abuse and neglect. [...]

By |2013-02-27T08:38:29-05:00February 27th, 2013|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety|
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Statement on Passage of HB 290 in the House

Three cornerstones will determine whether House Bill 290 is effective in protecting kids from dying due to abuse and neglect – confidentiality for individuals, transparency, and independence. Today the House took an important step in putting into statute a panel focused on preventing these child deaths by passing House Bill 290. We thank Representative Burch and Representative Wayne as well as many members of the House Health and Welfare Committee for their hard work to [...]

By |2013-02-22T10:53:26-05:00February 22nd, 2013|News Room|
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State Needs More Independent Review of Child-Abuse Cases

This post originally appeared as an Op-Ed in the Herald Leader here. A million years ago, when I was a high school student in Jefferson County, schools were overcrowded to the point where 200 to 300 students were clustered in an auditorium or cafeteria to watch instructional television as the means of teaching. Because of those outrageous student/teacher ratios, we frequently graded our own papers. Maybe it was just me, but a trend line emerged: My grades [...]

By |2013-02-13T09:01:37-05:00February 13th, 2013|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety|
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Safe Harbor for Kentucky’s Children

Guest Post by Gretchen Hunt, Training Coordinator, Kentucky Association of Sexual Assault Programs The statistics are staggering.  Nationally, between 100,000 and 300,000 children are vulnerable to being trafficked into commercial sex in the United States. Runaways and homeless youth are particularly vulnerable, with one in three being exploited in commercial sex in the first 48 hours of being on the streets.  The average age of entry into prostitution in this country is between twelve and [...]

By |2013-02-11T07:38:41-05:00February 11th, 2013|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety, Youth Justice|
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Children’s Advocacy Day 2013: When it comes to kids, do we have courage?

The weatherman cooperated.  Citizens from throughout the Commonwealth – hundreds of them – showed up.  The atmospherics were great – the Blue Apple Players performing a scene from “Lincoln”; a high school dance team jazzing up the scene; and, young people talking about public policy issues like human trafficking and a smoke-free environment  that count in their lives.  And the 9th Children’s Advocacy Day kicked off. The sun may have been shining bright on our [...]

By |2013-02-07T14:37:36-05:00February 7th, 2013|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety, Economic Security, Education, Health, Youth Justice|
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Statement on Governor Beshear’s State of the Commonwealth Address

Jeffersontown, KY-The Governor’s forward looking message gives hope to Kentucky’s kids.  The broad-based agenda around revenue and adequacy is an imperative, not an option. It is an imperative it we want to protect Kentucky’s  kids from abuse and neglect. It is an imperative if we want Kentucky’s kids to emerge as world-class learners. It is an imperative if we want Kentucky’s families not to feel the high price of being poor. We applaud the Governor’s call for [...]

By |2013-02-06T21:00:26-05:00February 6th, 2013|News Room|
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Protect Kids from Cuts

On January 29 the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services announced cuts to some vital programs for children, in response to a projected $86.6 million budget shortfall for the Department of Community Based Services. The planned cuts target the Kinship Care Program and the Child Care Assistance Program both of which affect thousands of families and children across the Commonwealth. Cutting the Kinship Care and Child Care Assistance Programs will cost the state more [...]

By |2013-02-04T16:23:29-05:00February 4th, 2013|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety, Economic Security, Education|
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Citizen Review Panel in Lexington Takes their Charge to Heart

Guest Post by Blake Jones, PhD Anne Frank once said, “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”  Members of the Southern Bluegrass Citizen Review Panels (CRP) have taken that to heart.  The CRP is a group of citizen volunteers in the Southern Bluegrass Region who are federally mandated to conduct a yearly evaluation of the Department for Community Based Services. However, in addition to the [...]

By |2013-01-15T09:00:08-05:00January 15th, 2013|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety|
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Restraint and Seclusion Policy Change Approved

Child advocates, students, and parents across the state received good news this week when the Administrative Regulation Review Subcommittee approved the Kentucky Department of Education’s new restraint and seclusion policy proposal. As we recently discussed, restraints and seclusion can have terrible consequences for Kentucky children. The policy change will enhance  school safety for both students and staff by limiting the use of restraint and seclusion, educating teachers on how to safely conduct restraints when absolutely necessary, and [...]

By |2012-12-20T11:42:59-05:00December 20th, 2012|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety, Education|
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