Special Series

Child Welfare Ideas from the Experts, 2024

The Imprint highlighted each of the policy recommendations made this summer by the participants of the Foster Youth Internship Program, a group of seven young people that experienced foster care and have completed congressional internships.

Born of History: A Tulalip Youth’s Journey to Indigenize Child Welfare

This three-part Imprint series explores a young person’s journey through a tribal foster care system and into a life of advocacy — as well as the challenges a family and the Tulalip Tribes confronted.

Fighting for Kin

Ashley Boone is uniquely qualified to become an adoptive mom. But the 36-year-old Black woman with a two-bedroom home stocked with books and toys in a suburb of Tulsa, Oklahoma, has been unable to take in the two children she says need her most: her nephews, ages 6 and 7, who live in Minnesota.

The Darkest Part of the Tunnel

Nell Bernstein reports on how California’s youth prisons got shut down, and what comes next as county juvenile justice systems take over.

High Stakes, Silent Systems

An investigation focusing on sexual and reproductive health in foster care. This Imprint review of 50 state policies and interviews with dozens of current and former foster youth, child welfare experts, officials and legal advocates revealed a troubling lack of critical guidance.

Out of State, Out of Mind
Hidden Foster Care

The federal government reports there are roughly 425,000 children across the United States living in foster care. The real number appears to be much, much higher — a little known shadow system known as hidden foster care.

Far from Home | Far from Safe

California sent thousands of vulnerable children to out-of-state facilities run by a for-profit company. Reports of rampant abuse followed. Now, confronted with a Chronicle and Imprint investigation, the state is bringing every child home.

Latonia vs. Chisago County

In 2016, the child welfare agency in Chisago County, Minnesota, took a newborn child into foster care. This series charts the agonizing four years spent by his grandmother, Latonia Rolbiecki, trying to bring the child back to his family as his foster parents pursued adoption.