CFK Reports From: Ten Years of Leaving Foster Children Behind
Event: Press Conference
Organized By: Child Welfare League of America
Where/When: Murrow Room, National Press Club; July 17, 2006

An outdated eligibility requirement for foster kids to receive federal assistance under Title IV-E of the Social Security Act is leaving out nearly 50,000 children per year, according to a report by the Child Welfare League of America.

CFK Reports From: The Impact of Meth on Foster Care, Children, and Families
Event: Panel Discussion
Organized By: Generations United
Where/When: June 8, 2006; Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, DC

The discussion at this congressional briefing on the impact of methamphetamine abuse on foster care, children, and families paid special attention to the role being played by grandparents who step forward to become legal guardians for children who are removed from their homes due to a parent's methamphetamine abuse.

CFK Reports From: Child Welfare and Well-Being: Building a 21st-Century System for Kids
Event: Panel discussion
Organized By: The Urban Institute and Chapin Hall Center for Children
Where/When: June 8, 2006; Urban Institute, Washington, DC

This event, the last in a series, was a useful discussion of one of the central tensions within the child welfare field: between the imperative to keep children physically safe from harm and the understanding that removing children from their parents, homes and neighborhoods damages them.

CFK reports from: Keeping Kids in the Child Welfare System After 18
Event: A Web conference
Organized by: Chapin Hall Center for Children
Where/When: On the Web, Wednesday, March 1, 2006, 1 pm ET

This one-hour discussion brought together six panelists to discuss the experiences of Illinois with allowing children in the foster care system to choose to remain as wards of the state past the age of 18, up to age 21.

CFK reports from: Child Well-Being: Their Present, Our Future
Event: A Briefing on America's Children: Key National Indicators of Child Well-Being, released by the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics
Organized by: America's Promise
Where/When: Washington DC, Thursday September 22, 2005

Members from non-profit organizations and government agencies gathered at an annual policy seminar conducted by The Alliance for Youth to discuss the latest data on child well-being and how this data should be used to inform federal policy in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The briefing was to discuss the biennial release of America's Children: Key National Indicators of Child Well-Being, a compilation of statistics gathered by a collaboration of 20 agencies collectively known as the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics that provides data on education, health status, social development and other measures of how children are faring.

CFK reports from: The Library of Congress
Event: The Education Policy Forum
Organized by: The American Educational Research Association, and The Institute for Educational Leadership
Where/When: Washington DC, Friday, September 9, 2005

Members of various child advocacy organizations congregated at a monthly forum hosted by The American Educational Research Association (AERA), and the Institute for Educational Leadership (IEL) to discuss the findings and implications of Children: Key National Indicators of Well Being, 2005.

CFK reports from: Capitol Hill
Event: Congressional Briefing on Mental Health Services and Former Foster Care Youth
Organized by: The Casey Family Programs, Harvard Medical School and New America Foundation
Where/When: Washington, D.C., April 6, 2005

On April 6, 2005 Harvard Medical School and Casey Family Programs held a Congressional briefing on mental health services and former foster care youth to release the Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study.

CFK reports from: "The Road from Foster Care to Adulthood: Experiences and Insights of Former Foster Care Youth" & "Solving America's Child Welfare Crisis: Former Foster Youth Speak Out"
Events: Informational briefing, panel discussion, dinner discussion
Organized by: Orphan Foundation of America, Freddie Mac Foundation, New America Foundation
Where/When: Washington, D.C., June 22 & 23, 2004
Report by: Diana Strumbos

Children in foster care face long educational odds: Only about 50 percent graduate from high school, only 11 percent of those high school graduates pursue post-secondary education and only 4 to 7 percent finish college or vocational school nationally.