Northeastern New Mexico received federal funds to develop rural maternity care networks of hospitals and clinics, which has since helped more than 760 mothers. But the program’s funding will run out in August.
If the Supreme Court strikes down the Indian Child Welfare Act, states are worried that it would displace children from their tribal communities and culture. Lawmakers in several states have put forth legislation to codify ICWA protections.
The death rate of children 19 years and younger increased by 11 percent between 2019 and 2020 and by 8 percent between 2020 and 2021, the biggest increase in U.S. child mortality in more than 50 years.
The share of 16- to 19-year-olds not working is up 22.4 percentage points since 2021. Eleven states have sought to loosen child labor laws to help fill empty positions.
Laws that were enacted to provide community-based alternatives to the state’s youth prisons may actually be fostering a new “shadow” juvenile system in which officials are circumventing transparency laws behind closed doors.
Currently, the state’s Medicaid coverage only covers two months after childbirth. But a bill would extend coverage for a full 12 months postpartum. In 2021, 23 percent of women ages 19-64 were uninsured in the state.
The bill will require physicians to provide care to infants “born alive” during abortion procedures and then report data to the state. The bill has enough support to override a governor’s veto.
The Republican-dominated state Assembly has quickly overridden Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto on a bill that would ban gender-affirming care for trans youth. The override passed with a 29-8 vote; just one Republican voted against.
The Department of Children and Families has suffered from high turnover and vacancy rates for years but will soon take on the child protection investigations in the seven remaining counties the agency doesn’t already oversee.
People ages 15 to 24 account for more than half of people who are affected by sexually transmitted diseases in California and about 20 percent of California high schools’ students were sexually active in 2019.
Black women in Michigan are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than in other states. A proposal would require the use of the PREM-OB scale and create a complaint system for obstetric racism.
Last week, the Florida Board of Osteopathic Medicine banned minors from utilizing puberty-blocking hormones and gender-affirming treatments, even in clinical trials. The rule must be filed to take effect.
Two state representatives have introduced a bill that would allow 16- and 17-year-olds to register as voters starting next year. A similar bill was introduced last year, but ultimately died on the session’s last day.
The governor promised to make preschool available to every family in Illinois that wanted it but did not lay out details for the pledge. One report estimates it would cost $505 million to enroll low-income children alone in pre-K.
Every state has a law allowing unwanted infants to be surrendered, but the laws lack uniformity, there is no standardized training and there are no data-driven best practices. The result is a chaotic system.
Only 59 percent of homeless students in Washington state graduate from high school in four years. But North Thurston Public Schools has their more than 600 homeless students graduating at nearly the same rate as their peers.
