A selection of The Imprint’s most impactful stories from the past year
Since 2019, states have been able to use federal child welfare funds to help pay for legal counsel for parents involved in child welfare cases, and for youth who are living in foster care. While most states guarantee some access to lawyers in these cases, it is widely recognized as an underfunded aspect of the child welfare process.
As The Imprint’s Sara Tiano reported this year, states have drawn in hundreds of millions of dollars through this new permission.
“It’s been a huge benefit across the state; small, medium and large programs have been able to make really important improvements in the way they deliver services,” Leslie Heimov, executive director of the Children’s Law Center of California, told Tiano. “It’s making a big difference.”
The Biden administration expanded on the federal support for legal counsel in 2024, issuing a final rule that widened the circumstances it applies to. Check out The Imprint Weekly Podcast’s interview with Allison Green of the National Association of Counsel for Children for more information on the new rule.
BEFORE YOU GO… If you learned something from this article, pay it forward and contribute to The Imprint. Our work is funded by readers like you who are committed to unbiased journalism that works for you, not for the algorithms.
