Hawaii

This summer has seen a lot of action around youth-centric legislation in Hawaii. In July, Gov. David Ige (D) signed a number of new laws governing the state’s child welfare and juvenile justice systems.

Hawaii is working to develop a plan to improve its child welfare system after a federal review found that the state for the third time had failed to meet several federal standards for children in its foster care system.

Despite new indications that renewing the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) could actually save the federal government money, Congress has yet to pass a reauthorization of the program. Nearly 1.7 million out of the 9 million children served by CHIP each year could lose healthcare coverage by the end of February if Congress fails to pass legislation to reauthorize the program, according to a new report from Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families.

The 2017 report Parents and the High Cost of Child Care from the advocacy group Child Care Aware of America (CCAoA) illustrates the high cost burden faced by working parents across the United States.

When Dana Murdock’s newborn niece Dahlia entered Hawaii’s foster care system in 2016, she flew from Arkansas to Hawaii as quickly as possible. Having aged out of the child welfare system herself, Murdock knew she couldn’t let her sister’s child languish in the system, and she couldn’t blame her sister for spiraling into drug addiction and losing Dahlia to foster care.

Expect a small allotment of funds to come online in the near future in the Aloha State. An act signed into law by Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) last month pushed policy reforms aimed at reducing the amount of juveniles sent to the state’s Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility (HYCF).

by Lauren Gonsalves On July 1, Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie (D) signed Senate Bill 1340 into law and effectively extended foster care services until age 21 for the Islands’ dependent population.