This morning I have considered the unfairly low board rate paid to Louisiana’s foster parents. Lousiana’s foster parents deserve a board rate that covers the full cost of caring for children. According to Louisiana Form 427, for a child up to 2 years of age, Louisiana will pay a foster parent a regular board rate…
Most Louisianans miss it, but the military understands the importance of child well-being. This evening as I read, “Retired military brass tell why 75 percent of Louisiana’s young people wouldn’t qualify for service” in The Advocate, I was reminded of a 102-year-old news article stored in my files. I found it. On February 9, 1916,…
An Open Letter to the Louisiana State Legislature Open Letter to Louisiana Legislature Regarding Children’s Services RE: Louisiana Legislative Audit, Access to Comprehensive and Appropriate Specialized Behavioral Health Services in Louisiana Friday, February 23, 2018 Dear Honorable Louisiana Senators and Representatives, The Louisiana Legislative Auditor released a performance audit on February 14, 2018, titled, Access…
By Rick Wheat, Chief Executive Officer Louisiana United Methodist Children and Family Services I woke up curious. This morning I called the two kennels in my town and I asked what they are paid to board dogs. One kennel charges $24 per night and the other charges $28 per night. The average kennel in my…
The Bipartisan Policy Center asks, “Is America Under-Investing in its Young Children?” The short answer is “Yes!” And in Louisiana, which holds the average rank among the states of 49th for child well being, the answer is an even louder, “YES!” Clearly, we under-invest in our young children – not because we do not have…
I got side-tracked on the Louisiana Board of Ethics website recently. The site is at: http://ethics.la.gov Each year I visit the Board of Ethics website and take an online course in Ethics. This time, though, I explored the site a bit and became intrigued by its robust campaign finance section. With just a few quick…
Good evening, Friends! I attended the 2nd National Building Bridges Initiative this week so I missed some of the daily child welfare news I follow. This morning, while catching up on what I missed, I was excited to see this headline in The Atlantic: “America’s Child-Poverty Rate Has Hit a Record Low“! “Yes!”, rang out…
Have you ever read an old document and, as you settled into it, you found yourself confused about whether you are reading something from the past or the present? Perhaps you felt a reader’s deja vu and had the sense the old document in your hands could have been written this morning! I had the…
I love our state flag! The central image on our flag is a mother pelican pricking her breast to feed her young with her own blood. That is commitment! The image is symbolic of our state’s deep commitment to our citizens. Rather than showing a pelican in flight above the waves, our state flag is…
All of us have heard of the Hippocratic Oath new physicians take. We also know another Hippocratic phrase, “First, do no harm“, found in the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates’ work titled, Of the Epidemics. In response to large health care crises, Hippocrates instructed physicians: “First, do no harm“. Only a few politicians are also physicians,…
While the budget debates during the Louisiana Legislature’s first Special Session of 2017 kept child advocates on the edges of their seats, Louisiana’s Representatives and Senators acted at the end to protect funding for foster children. Louisiana’s legislature did the right thing in funding the Department of Children and Family Services. In a state which…
There is no longer any excuse for ignoring Louisiana’s children. For anyone who has waited for the condition of Louisiana’s children to hit rock bottom before engaging in solutions, the wait is over. We are there. The Times-Picayune article, “Louisiana is the worst state in the U.S. for children, report says“, by Danielle Dreilinger, provides…
Earlier this month our blog posted an article titled, “Infant Mortality: Louisiana Lags Latvia“. The chart below graphically represents the ranking of countries and Louisiana on infant mortality during 2016 as reported by the Center for Disease Control’s National Vital Statistics System and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency’s World Fact Book. The number to the…
46 states and 81 countries keep more of their babies alive beyond their babies’ first birthdays than does Louisiana. “Infant mortality” is defined as the death of an infant before his or her first birthday. The “infant mortality rate” is the number of deaths of babies under one year old in a given year per…
This evening I read Louisiana’s plan to reduce child poverty and I am still scratching my head. What prevents child well-being initiatives from gaining traction in Louisiana? I ask because I’ve just read the 2009 Implementation Plan to reduce child poverty (1) prepared by the Child Poverty Prevention Council for Louisiana. The plan’s Executive Summary…
