Alaska

The U.S Department of Health and Human Services has announced new tribal home-visiting grant awards.

Alaska’s overuse of residential treatment for youth with behavioral health challenges likely violates the ADA, the Justice Department finds.

A new state law that took effect August 5 in Alaska aims to “address and improve deep structural inequities” in the state’s child welfare system — protecting residents should broader federal protections be overturned by a pending Supreme Court case.

A class-action lawsuit filed last week accuses Alaska’s child welfare agency of failing to support birth parents, kinship caregivers and foster parents, while violating the requirements of the Indian Child Welfare Act. 

Alaska has amended court rules to allow foster youth the ability to attend hearings and have attorneys argue their own wishes in their cases.

Last year, foster youth in Alaska won the right to be notified when the state seized their federal benefits and this fall, the judge on the case finalized the ruling.

By The Imprint staff reports A bill granting the U.S. Justice Department’s Office of Tribal Justice two additional years to complete a study on the needs of Native children is on its way to President Joe Biden’s desk for his signature.

The Family First Prevention Services Act offers states the chance to tap federal funds to prevent the need for foster care in some child welfare cases. At the same time, it greatly limits the amount of federal money that can be used to put foster youth in group homes, institutions and other “congregate care” options.

In Alaska, a coalition of tribal governments has now begun to assume responsibility for offering some child welfare services to Alaska Native children. The Alaska Tribal Child Welfare Compact, which was signed into law in October 2017 by Alaska Gov.