Children
Still crusading for ‘kinship care’ families
For Barry Shrout, raising four granddaughters is a role he willingly took on — and that he acknowledges is exhausting and expensive. “The financial part of it is a big thing with me,” said Shrout, 66, a single grandfather from Maysville who has custody of the girls ages 10, 11, 13 and 17. “I have […]
Home not just for the holidays: Meet two Kentucky families who open their hearts to foster children
In Spring 2022, Brydie Harris and husband Xian Brooks got an email that would change their lives.? A newborn Kentucky girl, flown to Tennessee for medical care, needed a foster family soon.? “Xian started to read the email to me and was like, ‘would you want this newborn–’? and I was like ‘yes,’” Harris recalled. […]
Kentucky child care advocates say Beshear’s budget doesn’t do enough?
Gov. Andy Beshear is asking the legislature to spend $141 million over the next two years to stabilize the child care industry, but some advocates for children say that won’t be enough. Beshear’s budget proposal comes as pandemic-era federal assistance is ending, leaving Kentucky’s child care providers to face potential closures, tuition increases and wage […]
Without help from General Assembly, Kentucky child care industry facing ‘scary’ 2024
BENTON — Children’s laughter wafts throughout the iKids Childhood Enrichment Center in this West Kentucky town, around midday.? Dozens of children, whom the center staff call “friends,” get their final bursts of energy out before the post-lunch nap. Then, they sprawl on their classroom cots and drift away to dream. This is a vision of […]
Unheard: Foster kids say they were hurt in state residential care in Louisville. Few were believed.
This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center. It is republished from the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting and Louisville Public Media.? This story contains discussions of sexual assault and the abuse and deaths of children. It was around 3:30 a.m. and most of the other residents at the Home of the Innocents were still […]
How are Kentucky’s kids faring? New report offers education, health insights
Fewer Kentucky kindergarteners were ready to learn in the 2022-2023 school year than in 2018, according to a new report that measures child welfare.? This insight comes from the Kentucky KIDS COUNT County Data Book, released by Kentucky Youth Advocates Wednesday. Kids Count is part of a national initiative from the Annie E. Casey Foundation. […]
Infant mortality fell in Kentucky in 2022 while increasing nationally
For the first time in 20 years, the rate of infant mortality in the U.S. ?showed a statistically significant increase in 2022, according to preliminary data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The national baby-death rate rose 3% from 2021, but in Kentucky it dropped 6%. The rate measures the percentage of babies […]
Kentucky ACLU appeals to U.S. high court for transgender minors’ medical care
The Trevor Project, which aims to end suicide among LGBTQ+ youth, also has trained counselors available around the clock. Reach them at 1-866-488-7386, via chat at https://www.thetrevorproject.org/get-help/, or by texting START to 678678.? The American Civil Liberties Union on Friday filed a petition for a certiorari asking the United States Supreme Court to overturn an […]
Kentucky’s ban on transgender medical care for minors headed to U.S. Supreme Court, ACLU says
Kentucky’s chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union says it will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on the 2023 law banning certain gender affirming medical care for transgender minors.? This comes more than a month after the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 to keep Kentucky’s ban on treatments like […]
Kentucky among states taking a harder line on school discipline
Parents in Boone County, Kentucky, were outraged this past January when a ninth grader who had been suspended a year earlier for threatening violence against his fellow students returned to class as soon as his punishment time was up. The parents packed a school board meeting, excoriating the county superintendent and other officials for the […]
Women workers could bear economic brunt as federal child care funding ends
A huge chunk of pandemic relief funding that kept child care programs afloat for the past few years is set to run out Saturday, and policy advocates say the economic impact will be profound, with the ripple effect hurting labor force participation and consumer spending at a time when the country is still trying to […]
Class action lawsuit seeks to halt enforcement of anti-trans law in Lexington public schools
A class action lawsuit against Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron and the Fayette County Board of Education argues that students’ constitutional and privacy rights are violated by a new anti-trans Kentucky law and asks the court to block its enforcement in Lexington schools.? Senate Bill 150, enacted by the legislature earlier this year over Democratic […]