CAI’s Ed Howard, Senior Policy Advocate Quoted by KCRA 3 on Foster Care Family Placement Bill

SACRAMENTO (April 9, 2024) – University of San Diego (USD) School of Law Children’s Advocacy Institute’s (CAI) Ed Howard, Senior Counsel and Senior Policy Advocate, was quoted by NBC KCRA 3 in Sacramento on AB 3217 (Bryan), which would require each county to review annual data comparing the statewide average rate of foster youth placed with relatives, for comparison with the county’s placement rate. In addition, it would require the county’s welfare director, if a county’s rate is less than the statewide average, to communicate with counties with the highest placement rates to compare best practices.

According to the author of the bill, Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, “Numerous studies over the years have shown that placing foster youth with loved ones leads to far better outcomes for that youth. Two years ago, our state made a $150 million investment for the Excellence in Family Finding, Engagement, and Support Program. [This bill] is a simple measure that will ensure that counties that are falling behind in family placement rates are aware of the resources and guidance available to them and pursue best practices to ensure that young people in foster care are placed with loved ones, rather than strangers, in times of instability and trauma.”

According to Ed Howard, Senior Counsel at CAI, this bill will keep counties transparent. "It is tragic that these children who are legally and morally our own children are not the subject of an ongoing conversation at the highest levels of our counties about how well they're doing," Howard said.

According to the article, KCRA 3 Investigates reported late last year on the report from the Children's Advocacy Institute that ranked Sacramento County as the worst in the state for family placement.

To read the full article visit KCRA 3.

To learn more about CAI and its work, visit our webpage.

About the Children’s Advocacy Institute

The Children's Advocacy Institute (CAI), founded at the nonprofit University of San Diego School of Law in 1989, is one of the nation's premiere academic, research, and advocacy organizations working to improve the lives of children and youth, with special emphasis on improving the child protection and foster care systems and enhancing resources that are available to youth aging out of foster care.

In its academic component, CAI trains law students and attorneys to be effective child advocates throughout their legal careers. Its Child Advocacy Clinic gives USD Law students three distinct clinical opportunities to advocate on behalf of children and youth, and its Dependency Counsel Training Program provides comprehensive training to licensed attorneys engaged in or contemplating Dependency Court practice.

CAI's research and advocacy component, conducted through its offices in San Diego, Sacramento, and Washington, D.C., seeks to leverage change for children and youth through impact litigation, regulatory and legislative advocacy, and public education. Active primarily at the federal and state levels, CAI's efforts are multi-faceted—comprehensively and successfully embracing all tools of public interest advocacy to improve the lives of children and youth. To support CAI’s work, please visit law.sandiego.edu/caigift.

About the University of San Diego School of Law

Each year, USD educates approximately 800 Juris Doctor and graduate law students from throughout the United States and around the world. The law school is best known for its offerings in the areas of business and corporate law, constitutional law, intellectual property, international and comparative law, public interest law and taxation.

USD School of Law is one of the 84 law schools elected to the Order of the Coif, a national honor society for law school graduates. The law school’s faculty is a strong group of outstanding scholars and teachers with national and international reputations and currently ranks 30th nationally among U.S. law faculties in scholarly impact and 41st nationally in past-year faculty downloads on the Social Sciences Research Network (SSRN). The school is accredited by the American Bar Association and is a member of the Association of American Law Schools. Founded in 1954, the law school is part of the University of San Diego, a private, independent, Roman Catholic university chartered in 1949.