INDIANAPOLIS -- Young people in trouble with the law in Indiana have benefited from an updated approach to juvenile justice.

It's the 25th anniversary of the Annie E. Casey Foundation's Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative. Indiana was one of the first states to embrace it, and state Supreme Court Justice Steven David called JDAI a "game changer.”

David said in the past, judges had to make a decision whether to lock kids up or send them home. Now, there are other options to help those who are struggling with substance abuse or mental health issues, which helps judges make these tough calls and improve public safety.

"Sometimes you detain the child because there was inadequate supervision or parenting. Most often, you detain the child, certainly if they were dangerous, but if you didn't want them to get in more trouble - if you were worried about them,” David said. "So, you would err on the side of detention."

In Indiana, 31 counties have implemented JDAI, representing about 70 percent of the state's 10- to 17-year-olds. Justice David said it has reduced the number of kids being held in secure detention by about 40 percent.

He said many different agencies are collaborating to do what's best for young people, and he praised state lawmakers from both sides of the aisle for their support.

"We're not releasing children and then they're causing more trouble, and we're fixing one problem that's causing another,” he said. "So down the road, we're keeping kids out of detention, we're giving alternatives; they're not committing more offenses and they're less likely to end up in the Department of Correction."

The Casey Foundation says its JDAI model affects about one-quarter of the U.S. youth population.


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September has been National Kinship Care Month, and more than 80% of Kentucky kinship families say they need help with groceries, followed by clothing, school supplies and other basic needs, according to a new report.

Because of budget constraints, the state placed a moratorium on its Kinship Care Program that previously allotted monthly payments of $300 per child to kinship caregivers stepping in as an alternative to foster care.

Shannon Moody, chief policy and strategy officer for Kentucky Youth Advocates, said a growing number of these families are navigating an often confusing child-welfare system.

"There are estimates that we've got about 55,000 children being cared for by relatives or close family friends in some sort of kinship care setting, whether that's child protective service-involved or not," she said, "and we do believe there are probably more than that."

Child care and mental health care were also listed as top priorities in the survey, by Kentucky Youth Advocates and the Kinship Families Coalition of Kentucky.

Norma Hatfield, president of the coalition, has spent the past decade raising two grandkids. She said most caregivers, especially grandparents, aren't financially equipped to suddenly take on full-time caring for children.

"Kentucky has done a lot to try to provide more support, but the needs are still there," she said. "It costs to raise children today, and that doesn't change."

Moody pointed to Senate Bill 151, signed into law by Gov. Andy Beshear earlier this year, as a sign of progress on policies aimed at improving the lives of kinship families. The law allows relatives or close friends, known as "fictive kin," to apply for certification as a foster home, and allows kids a say in where they live after they've been removed from their home.

However, Moody said more work is needed to expand community resources "to ensure that we are providing really comprehensive supports, including counseling and mediation services, in order for the that triad - the birth parent, the grandparent or other relative and the child - to get what they need."

The report also calls for more investments in peer support groups, using opioid settlement money to increase resources for kinship families, and better training for state and foster-care agencies and community mental-health providers on the unique needs of kinship families.

Resources for kinship families in the state are online at kinshipky.org.

It's a week to celebrate kids, with National Daughters Day today and National Sons Day on Saturday. The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption is encouraging everyone to remember kids who are looking for their forever homes, and consider fostering or adopting a child.

Rita Soronen, Dave Thomas Foundation president and CEO, said the goal is to find permanent homes for as many children as possible before they age out of the system.

"Single parents can foster and adopt, non-traditional families can foster and adopt. You can live in an apartment, you don't have to own your own home, you don't have to be wealthy. If you have the interest, and the willingness to learn, and the willingness to commit to a child - and you're safe - then you meet that first level of qualification," she said.

She added that states cover medical and other costs associated with kids in foster care. The process to qualify to foster or adopt a child includes a series of classes, background checks and home studies.

The latest statistics show that more than 28,000 children are in the foster care system in Texas. Adrian and Shane Potter adopted siblings 12-year-old Isiah, 10-year-old Jordan and four-year-old Sophia in 2020 after they had been in separate foster homes for years. Adrian Potter said the foundation worked with the adoption agency to get the kids settled with the services they needed.

"Our case worker got us connected to therapists, private tutors, music private lessons, they connected us to a lot of people, " he explained

He said adopting children is life changing in many ways.

"Every day is fun, laughter, every day is a challenge, but every day is also fun because you get to see these kids who have gone through so much learn to trust and learn to love, " he said.

Nearly 360,000 children are in foster care in the United States.

A new federal report shows anti-poverty policies enacted by New Mexico are making a big difference.

This month, the U.S. Census Bureau has released a supplemental report measuring poverty at the state level for the first time.

Emily Wildau, senior research and policy analyst at New Mexico Voices for Children, said the report still ranks the state last in the nation, at 28% under the Official Poverty Measure but when newly enacted state programs are taken into account, poverty decreased dramatically from 2021 to 2023.

"When you look at that same time period, and you use the measure that counts things like refundable tax credits and noncash benefits like SNAP, New Mexico's child poverty rate drops to just 8.9%," Wildau pointed out. "Which is actually better than the national rate."

The national child poverty rate is 10.4%. Wildau noted one disappointing figure in the data: The state's rate of uninsured children rose to almost 6% in 2023, compared to about 4% in 2022, likely because of changes made to Medicaid following the pandemic.

Wildau emphasized many policy changes made by New Mexico lawmakers are not reflected in nationally-generated data looking at children's well-being, often because the policies are new and have not been incorporated into how poverty is measured.

"We're doing really good things," Wildau outlined. "Increasing our state-level Earned Income Tax Credit, adding a new state-level Child Tax Credit and expanding SNAP eligibility October 1st up to 200% of that kind-of official poverty rate."

Along with New Mexico, 13 other states boosted fully refundable Child Tax Credits in 2024, aimed at enhancing economic security for low- and middle-income families. About 43 million people, or 13% of Americans, lived in poverty last year.