DC KinCare Alliance testified about DC’s discriminatory and harmful practice of kinship diversion also known as hidden foster care.

DC KinCare Alliance, along with more than 550 national, state and community-based organizations, urge Congress to take this historic opportunity to address hunger and improve the nutrition, health, and well-being of our nation’s children.

In her testimony, Ms. Spindel raises concerns about DC’s failure to implement the safeguards of the School Safety Omnibus Amendment Act of 2018 to ensure sexual predators are not hired by DC public schools.

Staff Attorney Caylyn Keller addresses concerns regarding proposal to provide for expungements of substantiated allegations of child abuse in as few as three years.

Ms. Spindel testified regarding recommended improvements to the subsidy programs, including a timeframe for processing applications, advance notice of program termination, increasing the subsidy amounts, increasing the income limits for eligibility, as well as payment of the subsidy retroactive to the date of application.

In a huge win for DC’s children and families, DC now has an official Ombudsperson for Children!

Ms. Spindel discussed the critical need for the Office and how Ms. Cawthon has the expertise and skills to fulfill its important mission.

These recommendations provide a fix to the Title IV-B funding stream to require the Title IV-E agency to contract with a community partner trusted by the kinship caregiver community to provide kinship navigation services and to ensure responsiveness and accountability to the caregivers they are supposed to serve.

Ms. Cawthon currently serves as a Regional Program Manager for the Children’s Bureau, where she provides leadership and strategic direction to the Bureau out of the Atlanta Regional Office. She has a long track record of collaborative, values-driven child welfare leadership with the federal government and in Georgia and Tennessee.

A Domestic Workers Bill of Rights in Washington DC would include domestic workers in protections against employment discrimination and in DC’s local occupational health and safety law.

Our advocacy has worked for a third time.  First, we were able to expand the grandparent subsidy to include other relatives.  Then, we were able to eliminate the 6-month eligibility period.  And now, we have expanded the subsidy to include godparents, some relatives who live out-of-state, and relatives who also live with a disabled parent.

DC KinCare Alliance attorneys and a representative from the Community Board met with Senator Wyden’s staff to discuss concerns about the use of federal funds for kinship navigator services in DC.  See Community Board Position Statement regarding this issue.