The 2024 election outcomes at the federal level are concerning to most organizations advocating for vulnerable individuals. Our next steps include:
(1) Urge our legislators to pass CLM's priority bills now, before the informal session ends to enhance the rights of children in the foster care system and unaccompanied homeless youth. Please join us in calling for the passage of:
- An Act Establishing a Bill of Rights for Children in Foster Care (S.2803 – Senate Ways and Means) Upholds rights of children and emerging adults in foster care, including LGBTQIA+ youth
- An Act Protecting Benefits Owed to Foster Children (H.4704 – House Ways and Means) Protects social security benefits and income for children in foster care, including for kids with disabilities and requires financial literacy training.
- An Act Enhancing Child Welfare Protections (Child Welfare Omnibus) (S.2804 - Senate Ways and Means) Codifies a number of child welfare initiatives, including improved reporting on transgender status, gender identity and sexual orientation for disproportionality analysis, along with race, ethnicity, and disability, as well as better tracking of outcomes for transition age youth.
- An Act to Provide Identification to Youth and Adults Experiencing Homelessness (H.3388 – House Ways and Means (passed the Senate in July 2023)) Creates a process for a person who is homeless or an unaccompanied homeless youth to apply for a state identification card and waive fees; and ultimately aids youth and adults experiencing homelessness to accomplish typical life tasks and access opportunities, such as applying for jobs, enrolling in education programs, and opening financial accounts.
(2) Continue to tackle priorities through ramped up budget, legislative, and administrative advocacy, including through the utilization of illuminating data and persuasive story sharing. Support critical needs, such as concerning:
- Workforce recruitment and retention - livable wages, educational opportunities, career ladders, and dignified retirement.
- Family preservation - upstream and concrete supports, including for economic justice and behavioral health services accessibility and quality care to move towards a system for child and family wellbeing and counter to the disproportionate numbers of families of color in the child welfare system.
- Transition age youth - for better outcomes overall, such as through improved permanency planning, educational, vocational training, and job opportunities, transitional supports, housing, juvenile justice, and better outcomes overall.
- Comprehensive foster care - with functional and flexible-enough policies to increase supports for kindship adoptions, foster care families, providers, and workers, and high-acuity needs.
- Adoption - enhanced post-adoption supports and more consideration for sibling connections, such as to prevent so many adopted youth to end up with Child Requiring Assistance cases, stuck in group homes.
(3) Analyze threats and develop defensive solutions to protect funding and advance administrative policies and legislation to guarantee critical rights and ensure quality services and supports for threatened populations.
- In light of national conversations, we are following topics such as gender-affirming care for youth.