The Imprint Weekly

What does lasting support look like after foster care ends? Ivory Bennett speaks with Christina Young-Van Osten, a child welfare professional and consultant who aged out of New York’s foster care system, about connection, mental health, and genuine decision-making power. Christina reflects on navigating adulthood, finding family beyond care, and turning lived experience into leadership. Together, they explore why achievement does not erase the need for support—and why preparing young people for adulthood requires choice, practical guidance, and relationships that last.

On this week’s headlines edition we discuss recent actions by the Trump administration, including efforts to improve the background check process for foster home licensing. We also discuss why in some states, the end of SNAP waivers for former foster youth won’t mean much, because they never got the waivers in the first place; and the push to build more juvenile facilities in states that can barely staff the ones they have. 

Reading Room

Trump Administration Announces Grant Awards for Modernizing Foster Home Licensing
https://imprintnews.org/youth-services-insider/trump-administration-announces-grant-awards-for-modernizing-foster-home-licensing/277190

Feds Expand Foster Care Prevention Funding to Include Expectant Parents
https://imprintnews.org/youth-services-insider/feds-expand-foster-care-prevention-funding-to-include-expectant-parents/277485

A Clearer Approach to Child Welfare Improvement Is Taking Shape
https://imprintnews.org/opinion/a-clearer-approach-to-child-welfare-improvement-is-taking-shape/277410

Supreme Court Denies Latest Challenge to Indian Child Welfare Act
https://imprintnews.org/icwa/supreme-court-denies-latest-challenge-to-indian-child-welfare-act/277540

A Growing Number of Courts Nationwide Are Dedicated to Enforcing the Indian Child Welfare Act
https://imprintnews.org/top-stories/a-growing-number-of-courts-nationwide-are-dedicated-to-enforcing-the-indian-child-welfare-act/276658

Foster Youth Navigate Hungry Autumn as SNAP Access Tightens
https://imprintnews.org/top-stories/foster-youth-navigate-hungry-autumn-as-snap-access-tightens/276906

The Trump Administration Plans to Roll Back Federal Regulations for Head Start. Here is What it Could Mean for California’s San Joaquin Valley.
https://imprintnews.org/child-welfare-2/the-trump-administration-plans-to-roll-back-federal-regulations-for-head-start-here-is-what-it-could-mean-for-californias-san-joaquin-valley/277544

Advocates Propose New Limits on Federal Child Welfare Funding
https://imprintnews.org/youth-services-insider/advocates-propose-new-limits-on-federal-child-welfare-funding/277464

Charting the Course: A Blueprint for Child Welfare Financing and Accountability Reform
https://bipartisanpolicy.org/report/charting-the-course-a-blueprint-for-child-welfare-financing-and-accountability-reform/

Survey Finds Extended Foster Care for Young Adults Helps — But Too Few Know It’s an Option
https://imprintnews.org/foster-care/survey-finds-extended-foster-care-for-young-adults-helps-but-too-few-know-its-an-option/276986

First-Ever National Survey Finds Forgotten Graves of Incarcerated Children
https://imprintnews.org/top-stories/first-ever-national-survey-finds-forgotten-graves-of-incarcerated-children/277236

The Buried History of Chelteham
https://imprintnews.org/podcast/buried-history-cheltenham

Texas Youth Prison Lockdown Prompts Calls for Reform Ahead of New Facility Builds
https://www.kut.org/crime-justice/2026-10-01/texas-youth-prison-lockdown-prompts-calls-for-reform-ahead-of-new-facility-builds

This week on InnerViews ... What does it take to help raise a child when you’re not their parent? Ivory sits down with her sister Ebony Turner to talk about becoming Jayden’s mother and aunt, the joys and exhaustion of caregiving, and the gap between having a village and having people who show up. 

Guest Bio:
Ebony Turner is an insurance underwriting professional with eight years of experience. She volunteers with young people who have experienced foster care and takes part in community work. A former foster youth, Ebony is Ivory Bennett’s younger sister and Jayden’s aunt. In this episode, she brings the perspective of a family member who helps care for Jayden while building a life of her own.

On this week’s episode we are joined by Toni Watt, a sociology professor at Texas State University of San Marcos, who has worked diligently along with others to help foster youth in the state get to college and get a degree. 

A recent landscape analysis, which Watt was part of, shows that those efforts have yet to yield the kind of changes anyone would hope for out of a state with a broad tuition waiver and a requirement that state colleges have a liaison on campus to support current and former foster youth. Watt discussed the history of Texas policies around college for foster youth, and what she thinks needs to happen next. 

Toni Watt is a Professor of Sociology at Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas, where she helped create the group Foster Care Alumni Creating Educational Success (FACES). She is the recipient of the Pro Humanitate Literary Award, given by the Center for Child Welfare Policy.

Reading Room

From Foster Care to College: Supporting Higher Education Achievement among Students Who Have Experienced Foster Care in Texas
https://reportcenter.highered.texas.gov/reports/reports-and-studies-non-fiscal/from-foster-care-to-college-2026-landscape-analysis/

Texas is a Pioneer in Supporting Youth with Foster Care Experience in Higher Education, but Outcomes Remain Poor. A New Report Examines Why.
https://imprintnews.org/opinion/texas-supports-college-students-from-foster-care-but-outcomes-remain-poor/276831

Foster Youth Support Services Required, but Uneven, Across Texas Campuses
https://imprintnews.org/child-welfare-2/foster-youth-support-services-required-uneven-texas-campuses/48493

Texas Expands College Tuition Benefit for Foster Youth
https://imprintnews.org/top-stories/texas-lawmakers-to-decide-on-expanding-college-tuition-benefit-for-foster-youth/260655

Texas Foster Youth Get Free College Tuition, but Nearly Half of the State’s Eligible Students Don’t Use It
https://imprintnews.org/foster-care/texas-college-tuition-waiver-underused/62905

On this week’s episode we welcome back Ian Forber-Pratt, former president of the Children’s Emergency Relief International, who has launched The Ties Foundation to help people who experienced an international adoption travel to their homelands and process the experience. 

Ian Forber-Pratt is the founder and executive director of The Ties Foundation. He is the former president of Children’s Emergency Relief International.

Reading Room

The Ties Foundation
https://www.thetiesfoundation.org/

Foster Care in India, Kinship in America, and More with Ian Forber-Pratt
https://imprintnews.org/podcast/foster-care-india-kinship-america-more-ian-forber-pratt

Ukraine’s Orphans and Families, One Year Later
https://imprintnews.org/podcast/ukraines-orphans-and-families-one-year-later

Billie has experienced child welfare from multiple perspectives: as a child in foster care and group placements, and later as a parent. In this deeply personal conversation, she joins InnerViews host Ivory Bennett to discuss grief, being unheard in care, motherhood, addiction and recovery, family separation, advocacy, and what children and families truly need from the systems designed to support them. Billie also reflects on why she now feels ready to tell her story—and why lived experience can help reshape child welfare for the next generation.

Content Note: This episode includes discussion of childhood abuse and neglect, sexual assault, suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts, addiction and recovery, family separation, child removal, racism, grief, and difficult experiences within foster care and the child welfare system.

On this week’s episode we review some interesting research on kinship diversion, emergency placements and the nexus between child welfare systems and immigration under Trump. Then we discuss some local headlines on state child welfare spending and the result of two recent legal challenges.

Reading Room

How Are Heightened Deportation Efforts Affecting Child Welfare Agencies?https://shorturl.at/AqJ4K

 State Tracking of Kinship Diversion Can Inform the Field
https://media.childtrends.org/media/StateTrackingofKinshipDiversion_ChildTrends_July2026.pdf

‘Dehumanizing’ Placements in Hotels and Offices: First-Ever National Survey Finds Thousands of Foster Youth Are Sent to Substandard Emergency Placements
https://imprintnews.org/top-stories/dehumanizing-placements-in-hotels-and-offices-first-ever-national-survey-finds-thousands-of-foster-youth-are-sent-to-substandard-emergency-placements/276268

‘When I Had No One, I Had Them’: Young Moms Lose FSU Foster Care Program Liifeline
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article316580993.html

Citing Siders Case, Ohio Lawmakers Urge Max Foster Care Rates
https://www.statenews.org/government-politics/2026-08-19/citing-siders-case-ohio-lawmakers-urge-max-foster-care-rates

Some Lawmakers Frustrated by Morrisey’s Hidden Details of Federal TANF Spending
https://westvirginiawatch.com/2026/08/21/some-lawmakers-frustrated-by-morriseys-hidden-details-of-federal-tanf-spending/

State Lawmakers Gave Louisiana Foster Parents More Money — or So They Thought
https://lailluminator.com/2026/08/21/foster-care-money/

High Court: Maine Wrongly Terminated a Mother’s Parental Rights Because She Couldn’t Find an Affordable Home
https://themainemonitor.org/maine-wrongly-terminated-parental-rights-affordable-home/

Once Again, NY Appeals Court Rules CPS Cannot ‘Unlawfully’ Investigate Parents With Abusive Partners
https://imprintnews.org/top-stories/once-again-ny-appeals-court-rules-cps-cannot-unlawfully-investigate-parents-with-abusive-partners/276699

On the week’s episode, SchoolHouse Connection founder Barbara Duffield joins to discuss the different approaches the U.S. government has for tallying youth and family homelessness. We also discussed recent Trump policy announcements around the McKinney-Vento program and Head Start, and why she thinks these issues would be best handled by the Department of Health and Human Services. 

Barbara Duffield is the founder and executive director of SchoolHouse Connection. She was the Director of Education for the National Coalition for the Homeless from 1994 to 2003.

Reading Room

Missing the Point: When Media, Advocates, and Policymakers Use Data That Exclude Children and Youth
https://schoolhouseconnection.org/article/hud-pit-count-misses-homeless-children-youth

Proposed Head Start Rule Eliminates Critical Protections for Children Experiencing Homelessness
https://schoolhouseconnection.org/article/hud-pit-count-misses-homeless-children-youth

On this week’s episode, we review some recent headlines on youth justice, including Minnesota raising their floor and some questionable comments on the system by officials in Mississippi and New Mexico. 

Liz Ryan joined to talk about her new project aimed at helping journalists and newsrooms with reporting on a complicated system. 

Liz Ryan served as administrator of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention for President Joe Biden. Before that she founded the Campaign for Youth Justice and the Youth First Initiative.

Reading Room

The Youth Justice Style Guide
https://youthjusticestyleguide.substack.com/p/welcome-to-the-youth-justice-style

Summer 2026 Teen Takeover Coverage & What Media Can Learn
https://reportforyouthjustice.org/#blog

Ending Punishing Surveillance: Youth Justice Reformers Lay Out Plan for Probation Reforms
https://imprintnews.org/top-stories/ending-punishing-surveillance-youth-justice-reformers-lay-out-plan-for-probation-reforms/276321

New Minnesota Law Bars Prosecution of Children 12 and Younger
https://imprintnews.org/top-stories/new-minnesota-law-bars-prosecution-of-children-12-and-younger/276312

Raising the Floor on Prosecuting Youth
https://imprintnews.org/podcast/raising-the-floor-prosecuting-youth-ricky-watson

Mississippi Lawmakers Pass Youth Court Overhaul, Approve $29.5M in New Spending
https://www.wlbt.com/2026/07/17/mississippi-lawmakers-pass-youth-court-overhaul-approve-295m-new-spending/

Hearing Held on Juvenile Justice, but Prosecutors not Invited
https://www.kob.com/new-mexico/hearing-held-on-juvenile-justice-but-prosecutors-not-invited/

Scott Administration Proposes Indefinite Pause on Juvenile Justice Reform
https://www.wcax.com/2026/08/04/scott-administration-proposes-indefinite-pause-juvenile-justice-reform/

Snohomish County says State Legally Liable for Juvenile Detention Center Claims
https://myedmondsnews.com/2026/07/snohomish-county-claims-state-legally-liable-for-juvenile-detention-center-abuse/

Michigan Justices Find 50-Year Sentence for Juvenile Murderer ‘Unconstitutionally Excessive’
https://www.mlive.com/news/2026/08/michigan-justices-find-50-year-sentence-for-juvenile-murderer-unconstitutionally-excessive.html

For three years, a collaborative effort was made to develop core principles and concepts around how best to support young adults as they prepared to exit the foster care system. That effort culminated in the publishing of Improving Outcomes for Young Adults and the Systems that Serve Them: A Playbook of Best Practices. 

On this week’s episode we were joined by Natalie Clark and Sarah Goad, two of the many people who worked on the playbook. We talked about how people with lived experience drove the discussions that produced playbook, what core ideas they settled on, and what comes next. 

Natalie Clark is the co-founder and co-executive director of the 1999 Collective. Sarah Goad, is the child welfare manager for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

Reading Room

Improving Outcomes for Young Adults and the Systems that Serve Them: A Playbook of Best Practices

https://issuu.com/youthvillages/docs/improving_outcomes_for_young_adults_and_the_system?fr=sNzAzMzg0Njg5NjA

The Playbook for Helping Foster Youth Become Adults

https://imprintnews.org/opinion/a-playbook-of-best-practices/276160

The National Collaborative for Transition-Age Youth

https://youthvillages.org/collaborative

Creating Extended Foster Care That Works for All

https://cdn.intelligencebank.com/us/share/LONz/GLvrW/kMvb1/original/Creating+Extended+Foster+Care+That+Works+for+All