What You Need to Know About the New USCIS Rules There are roughly 9 million U.S. citizens currently living abroad. Typically, they are able to transfer their citizenship to any children they have, but things get a little more complicated when reproductive assistance is involved. Fortunately, a recent update from USCIS makes it much easier […]

Arizona Creates Cabinet-Level Division to Monitor and Enforce Child Safety and Family Services In 2014, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer followed the precedent set by 10 other state chief executives, disbanding the state’s child protective services, seeking to replace it with an independent agency that would report directly to the governor’s office. Governor Brewer used an […]

Ohio Advisory Group Makes Recommendations to Attorney General In late 2012, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine put together a panel known as the Foster Care Advisory Group, a collection of child welfare expert tasked with taking a close look at the state’s child welfare system, and with making specific recommendations to increase the safety and […]

On February 25, 2015, the Bureau of Indian Affairs of the United States Department of the Interior issued revised guidelines involving the placement of Indian children into foster care or the termination of parental rights so that the child could be placed for adoption. Those guidelines are to supercede those that had been in effect […]

In February 2015 a three judge panel of the Appellate Division of the Superior Court of New Jersey issued an opinion involving application of the Indian Child Welfare Act and the requirement to notify an Indian tribe of a pending involuntary termination of parental rights. The New Jersey Division of Child Protection and Permanency sought […]

Federal Laws Governing Adoptions—The Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children Though most laws governing child welfare are enacted by the state, there are federal laws and regulations that affect adoption. One of the most important is the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children (the “ICPC”). An Overview of the ICPC The ICPC was […]