children
Kentuckians invited to June town halls on helping families with substance use complications
Kentuckians with ideas to improve outcomes for children placed in foster care because of substance use complications will get the chance to share them during a series of town halls this June, the Administrative Office of the Courts announced Wednesday.? Registration is required for the four virtual town halls, which Citizen Foster Care Review Boards […]
Juvenile justice: ‘From nothing to something and then right back to nothing’
The mood was celebratory as Kentucky and federal officials crowded into the Capitol Rotunda on a cold January day in 2001 to announce the end of five years of federal oversight of the state’s problem-ridden juvenile justice system. “We’re never going to slide back to where we were in 1995,” said then-Juvenile Justice Commissioner Ralph […]
Pertussis outbreak in Lexington spans ages, most dangerous for babies
The Lexington-Fayette County Health Department is reporting an outbreak of pertussis, which is commonly called whooping cough and is a highly contagious respiratory illness.? The department said it’s confirmed nine cases since late April, including a case at Lafayette High School, one at St. Peter and Paul Catholic School and a community member in their […]
The number of births continues to fall, despite abortion bans
Births continued a historic slide in all but two states last year, making it clear that a brief post-pandemic uptick in the nation’s birth numbers was all about planned pregnancies that had been delayed temporarily by COVID-19. Only Tennessee and North Dakota had small increases in births from 2022 to 2023, according to a Stateline […]
Kentucky K9 officer will sniff out evidence in child exploitation cases
Kentucky’s Attorney General’s office is getting a pawfect new officer who will work in the Department of Criminal Investigations sniffing out technology in child exploitation cases.? Charity, a yellow lab K9 officer, is trained to detect cell phones, flash drives, micro-SD cards and other technology that the AG’s office said “could contain child sex abuse […]
Anthem Medicaid makes mental health wellness course available to 17 Kentucky schools
This story mentions suicide. ?If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, please call or text the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988. LOUISVILLE — Anthem Medicaid announced Wednesday it has launched a free digital mental wellness course, which is available to 1,512 students in 17 Kentucky schools.? The announcement comes during Mental […]
More Kentucky children have kept Medicaid coverage compared with other states
Kentucky is among a handful of states that lost only a small percentage of children from its Medicaid program in 2023 even as the number of kids cut from coverage soared elsewhere under annual renewal requirements that had been suspended during COVID-19. Overall, 4.16 million children were dropped from the government health plan that covers […]
Is IVF protected in Kentucky? Depends on whom you ask.
None of the bills to explicitly protect in vitro fertilization in Kentucky got a hearing this legislative session, making them effectively dead on arrival.? With roughly eight months until the next session, some lawmakers and attorneys disagree on what protections exist for IVF under current Kentucky law.? Republican Sen. Whitney Westerfield — who has children […]
‘We cannot hold on:’ Kentucky child care providers plead for more help from lawmakers?
More than 250 Kentucky child care providers responsible for 150,000 children across the state sent lawmakers a letter Tuesday pleading for more support, saying what’s been proposed in the state budget “is not enough” as their industry is “at risk of collapse.”? The letter asks lawmakers to pass a supplemental lifeline funding bill in the […]
Beshear lets school ‘guardians’ bill become law without his signature
Kentucky school districts will have the option of employing armed “guardians” to fill vacant law enforcement positions on campuses under a bill that became law Tuesday without Gov. Andy Beshear’s signature.? Senate Bill 2 is a Republican-backed measure that built upon a bipartisan school safety law that was passed in 2019 after a shooting at […]
For families that need the most help, child care costs are about to drop
Originally published by The 19th. For more than a decade, Erin Farias has watched the low-income families who send children to the day cares she runs navigate America’s broken child care system. Many of those parents had government assistance for school tuition, but half the time, Farias couldn’t count on them to make their co-payments. […]
Senate approves bill aimed at helping schools avoid hiring teachers with a history of abuse
FRANKFORT — A House bill aimed at helping Kentucky schools avoid hiring sexual abusers gained passage in the Senate Wednesday.? Sponsored by House Education Committee Chairman Rep. James Tipton, House Bill 275 would require those seeking employment in schools to disclose if they were the subject of an allegation, investigation or disciplinary action within the […]