NCCPR news and commentary round-up, week ending March 10, 2026

● In Tennessee, the head of the state’s family police agency, which has failed for decades, finally is demanding accountability - from the children!  WTVF-TV in Nashville has a story and I have a blog post, about that atrocious bill in Tennessee that would allow the agency to effectively jail any foster child who gets out-of-line – in order to hold them accountable.

● Oh, and speaking of accountability in Tennessee, who is accountable for the poor results from that $4.2 million no-bid contract to recruit more foster parents, as reported in The Tennessean? 

● In New York, family advocates and family defenders have developed an impressive legislative agenda with enormous potential to make all vulnerable children safer. The New York City Family Policy Project has a comprehensive analysis with links to the vast body of research supporting this agenda. And while the legislative ideas come from New York, most are adaptable to any state. 

● Also in New York, Healthbeat New York reports that the city’s family police agency, the Administration for Children’s Services, has agreed to take $20 million from its budget and turn it over to the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to expand a longstanding voluntary prevention program called the Nurse Family Partnership. But while ACS says that means its hands are off the program, it can’t change the law that makes the nurses mandatory reporters. 

From the story: 

“What they’re doing is buying a doorway for reports,” said Joyce McMillan, founder and executive director of Just Making A Change for Families, a local nonprofit known as JMACforFamilies … “If people are coming in [homes] — because this is for mental health help — they’re going to talk about the things [the parents] struggle with, and then those struggles are going to be turned into cases against the family, separating more kids from their home.” 

● The Imprint adds context to the story of a report that was commissioned, and then suppressed, by Michigan officials concerning the horrors inflicted on Native American children who were institutionalized in so-called “boarding schools” in that state. 

● Children’s Rights has a policy brief on what the Trump Administration is doing to immigrant children, and what can be done about it. It’s available in Spanish and English.    

● In Alaska, which tears apart families at one of the highest rates in the nation, lawmakers are wondering why the reforms they enacted a few years ago aren’t working.  As I write in the Alaska Beacon, it’s because they’re tearing apart families at one of the highest rates in the nation. 

● In Texas, KENS-TV reports, legal aid firms across the state have formed the Family Early Defense Network, with a hotline to provide advice and referrals to lawyers for families facing investigations by the Texas family police. 

● A story in The Imprint about new guidance from the federal Administration for Children and Families is headlined “Feds Warn States: Family Gender Disputes Should Not Lead to Child Welfare Cases.” But is that really what the letter means? As you would expect from the Trump Administration, the letter appears directed at states that interfere when parents reject their children’s choices about their sexual identity. But does that also mean that Texas, for example, has to stop harassing families where parents support their transgender children? 

● There is an interesting nugget in this story from The Imprint about the Georgia Legislature appropriating $81 million to close a gap in the budget of the state’s family police agency: 

The budget document directs the agency to prioritize reunification services, assessments and specialized services.