brain development

Damien Fair, recently named MacArthur Genius, on the counterintuitive way the brain develops and how that relates to child welfare and juvenile justice practices By Colleen Connolly

This column was adapted from oral remarks given by the author, Wendy Smith, an associate dean at the University of Southern California’s School of Social Work, during a Congressional roundtable sponsored by the National Foster Youth Institute and the Congressional Caucus on Foster Youth in February.

It is National Adoption Month, and I’m remembering the four adoptions that I oversaw in my five years as a foster care social worker. These were among the happiest occasions in my child welfare career.

by Nisha Ajmani  Mark*, age 17, is one of many California adolescents currently detained in juvenile hall anxiously awaiting a judicial decision on whether they will be prosecuted as juveniles or adults.