Exciting progress on our legislative priorities!

Yesterday, July 1, 2008 both the House and Senate passed “An Act Protecting Children in the Care of the Commonwealth.”  This bill contains many things that we think will have a positive impact on children and families such as:

• Tuition and fee waivers at public Colleges and Universities for youth who age out of care,  are adopted from care, or are in legalized guardianship placements;
• A commission to examine issues around grandparents raising their grandchildren;
• An adjustment of the foster parent rate of reimbursement to represent the actual cost of raising a child as reported by the US Department of Agriculture;
• Codification of the educational requirements for DSS social workers; and
• A mandate for a coordinated, system wide response to child abuse and neglect which includes related mental-health, substance abuse, and domestic voilence issues.

We want to thank and acknowledge the Speaker of the House, the Senate President, Senator Spilka, Representative John Rogers and other members of the conference committee for their tremendous work on this bill and the issue of child welfare.  “An Act Protecting Children in the Care of the Commonwealth” is a clear reflection of their longstanding and continued commitment to protecting vulnerable children.

We also want to thank YOU, your advocacy helped develop and pass this bill which will go along way towards addressing a number of serious issues which have plagued child protective services, the Department of Social Services, and the Commonwealth in general.