National

  • Child Welfare

    Schools’ Misuse of Child Welfare System Puts Children at Risk

    Coordination and partnership between school systems and child welfare systems is essential. Teachers, who in most states are mandatory reporters, often serve as the frontline when it comes to identifying children in their classrooms who might be suffering from abuse or neglect and filing reports with their local child welfare agencies. As a result, educators and other school staff make up the largest percentage of abuse and neglect reports, and protect countless children every year by. But recently we’ve seen several troubling cases of schools misusing—and thus endangering—this important relationship.

    | National

  • Immigration

    Amicus Brief Regarding the Harms of Rescinding DACA

    CDF joined three dozen organizations and leaders in filing a friend-of-the-court brief with the U.S. Supreme Court, asking the Court to consider the impact of rescinding DACA on beneficiaries’ children, whose interests were glaringly absent in the Trump administration’s 2017 decision.

  • Child Welfare

    Implementing the Family First Prevention Services Act

    In February 2018, after many years of attempts, the Family First Prevention Services Act of 2018 was signed into law. Implemented properly, this landmark law has the potential to change the face of child welfare as we know it.

    | National

  • Immigration

    Federal Judge Blocks Trump Administration's Dangerous Flores Rule

    In more good news and another victory for immigrant children, a federal judge upheld a landmark 1997 court settlement governing the standards of care for immigrant children in U.S. custody, rejecting the Trump administration’s attempt to dismantle protections for immigrant children and supplant them with regulations that would have had a devastating impact on children’s health, education and general welfare.

    | National

  • Immigration

    Trump Administration Lifts Freeze on Medical Deferred Action

    When the Department of Homeland Security notified Congress one week after the emergency hearing that it would reverse its misguided revocation of medical deferred action, it was, as Rep. Jamie Raskin, said, “[A] moment of good news.” That’s a moment of good news achieved by immigrant families, advocates and Congressional intervention. Here’s to many good moments to come.

    | National