CAI’s Amy Harfeld Quoted in The New York Times on First Lady’s New Investment Accounts for Foster Youth
SAN DIEGO – University of San Diego (USD) School of Law Children’s Advocacy Institute’s (CAI) National Policy Director Amy Harfeld was interviewed by The New York Times for an article titled, “Melania Trump Unveils New Investment Accounts for Foster Children.”
The new federal initiative to establish savings accounts for foster children received praise from CAI's Amy Harfeld, who stated, “[a]lthough the seed money is modest, the message is not: Foster youth deserve the same dignity and opportunity as their peers to accumulate assets, build financial security and map out their dreams beyond the next placement.”
According to the article, First Lady Melania Trump unveiled the "Fostering the Future" accounts as part of the broader "Trump accounts" program, making investment accounts available to foster youth for the first time. The article also featured Justin Kasieta, founder of theorphantax.org and a former Michigan foster child, who emphasized that access to capital at adulthood is one of the strongest predictors of whether a former foster youth lands on their feet, and called the new accounts exactly the kind of intervention that changes outcomes. “This is real,” he added, “and it matters.”
CAI, with support from funders, has been leading a multidimensional campaign to eradicate nationwide the practice of states taking foster youth’s federal benefits. A well-established leader on this issue, CAI is leading reform efforts at the federal, state, and local levels to protect the rights and preserve the benefits of foster youth. CAI issued a 50-state report card entitled, “Foster Care or Foster Con? Preserving the Federal Benefits of America’s Most Vulnerable Children.”
To learn more about CAI’s campaign to stop this practice, please visit our Preserving Federal Benefits of Foster Youth website.
To read the full article, please visit The New York Times (subscription may be required).
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.
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 our website.
About the School of Law
Each year, USD Law 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 88 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 34th nationally among U.S. law faculties in scholarly impact and 35th 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.