Child Welfare Watch News Digest -- November 26, 2013

Here’s a roundup of this week’s news on low-income children, youth and their families: New York City family court hours will be extended following an NBC4 investigative report exposing trauma to children who were placed in foster care before parents accused of abuse or neglect had a chance to defend themselves. The decision to limit judges’ hours was a result of funding cuts affecting the state’s judiciary. Under the new policy, judges will remain on-call on Friday afternoons and around holidays in order to hear cases that may come up. View the NBC4 report on the new policy here.  Read our own coverage here.

The Center for Law and Social Policy released Promote Family Engagement, a new resource highlighting research on the importance of family engagement in child care and early education programs. Promote Family Engagement is part of CLASP’s “Charting Progress for Babies in Child Care” project, an ongoing effort to link research to policy ideas to help states make the best decisions for infants and toddlers in child care. Read the research summary here.

A recent report by the National Center for Children in Poverty found that only 42 percent of percent of eligible students participate in Head Start. Despite increases in federal funding, states struggle to fund Head Start programs. As a result, thousands of children across the country remain on waiting lists.  Read the full report here.

Calendar

• December 4 - Choosing Leaders for a New Era. Join the Center for New York City Affairs for a post-election roundtable discussion including behind-the-scenes stories direct from the campaign teams and analysts. This forum will examine the mayoral, comptroller and public advocate races. RSVP here.

Happy Thanksgiving!