The Imprint Weekly

The Imprint

The Imprint Weekly Podcast offers listeners a regular review of news and trends in America's child welfare and juvenile justice systems, along with other critical services for youth and families. Join Imprint Senior Editor John Kelly for a discussion of the week's major headlines, plus interviews with leaders in the field.

  1. 3D AGO

    Headlines: Trump Administration News, Foster Care and Child Fatalities, and More

    In our first podcast of 2026, we discuss new data on the administration’s goal of A Home for Every Child, a new leader for the U.S. Children’s Bureau, Trump’s freezing of safety net funds in five states, and more.  Reading Room Why We Are Putting the PIP on a PIP  https://imprintnews.org/opinion/why-we-are-putting-the-pip-on-a-pip/269784 How States Stack Up on Trump’s “A Home for Every Child” Agenda https://bit.ly/4qmHcLo Trump Administration Issues Deadline Demands Before Releasing Children’s Aid  https://bit.ly/4sDYV2u Alex Adams Seeks Names in Hasty Push For Personal Data of Minnesota Social Service and Foster Care Recipients https://bit.ly/4jIUgbC Trump Administration Cancels Several DEI-Related Child Welfare Grants https://bit.ly/3Nt2SH3 Feds Asks 39 States To Stop Taking Foster Kids’ Benefits https://bit.ly/4qjraC5 President Trump Has Made His Pick for the Federal Children’s Bureau https://bit.ly/4sDYFjO Foster Care and Child Maltreatment Mortality Rates in the US https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2843235 SOHO Forum: Should CPS intervene more? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0462gYjkbc The Other Trump Child Welfare Doctrine Issued This Month https://imprintnews.org/subscriber-content/the-other-trump-child-welfare-doctrine-issued-this-month/268999 Candice Broce Faces Lawmakers About Georgia’s Child Welfare Budget Crisis https://bit.ly/4jIs7kW New York Governor Signs Law to End Anonymous Reporting of Child Maltreatment https://imprintnews.org/child-welfare-2/new-york-governor-signs-law-to-end-anonymous-reporting-of-child-maltreatment/269804 The Number of Children in Los Angeles County Foster Care Has Plunged. The Imprint Set Out To Discover Why https://bit.ly/456MbqZ How An Indigenous Mom’s Adoption Journey Inspired Her Nonprofit https://imprintnews.org/top-stories/three-precious-miracles-arizona-nonprofit/269711 Crisis Confidential: Things We Learned So You Don’t Have To https://imprintnews.org/opinion/crisis-confidentialthings-learned/269818

    35 min
  2. 12/28/2025

    The Best of The Imprint Weekly Podcast, 2025

    As always, we were fortunate to have some amazing guests join us this year on The Imprint Weekly Podcast. In this episode we feature clips of 12 great interviews from 2025.  If you enjoy this podcast, or the great work our reporters do at The Imprint and Fostering Families Today, and the work that our Youth Voices Rising team does, please consider making a donation. And if you do so this month, during Newsmatch, your donation will get doubled! Fostering Media Connections is very lucky to have some terrific philanthropic supporters, advertisers and sponsors, and subscribers to our business and policy section that help make this organization go. But we really cannot do it without donors like you who read our stuff, listen to our podcasts and attend our online events.  There are tons of really great nonprofit, independent news outlets to support out there, and we hope you consider us one of them. To give today it’s easy! Visit www.imprintnews.org/donate. Liz Ryan, former administrator, U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Linda Spears, CEO, Child Welfare League of America Kelley Fong, assistant professor of sociology, University of California, Irvine Amy Harfeld, national policy director and senior staff attorney, Children's Advocacy Institute Sacha Klein, associate professor, Michigan State University School of Social Work Alex Briscoe, co-founder, Public Works Alliance Brandon Nichols, director, Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services Barissa Ford, director of community outreach and engagement, Youth In Need Claudia Rowe, editorial writer, Seattle Times, author of Wards of the State Gretchen Sisson, qualitative sociologist, University of California, San Francisco, author of Relinquished Vinny Schiraldi, visiting fellow, Pinkerton Foundation Alex Adams, assistant secretary for family support, Administration for Children and Families

    47 min
  3. 12/15/2025

    Trump’s Top Child Welfare Official: An Interview with Alex Adams

    On this week's episode, Imprint reporter Michael Fitzgerald was in Washington last week to interview Alex Adams, who was confirmed in October to serve as the Assistant Secretary for Family Support at the Administration for Children and Families. Fitzgerald asked Adams about a wide range of subjects. They discussed the administration’s goal of “A Home for Every Child” and how Adams plans to achieve that; how and why he plans to "barbecue" much of the regulatory language for states when it comes to federal funding and practice; why the administration has made demands that states roll back policies that are meant to protect LGBTQ+ youth; the role of kinship caregivers; and much more.  Thanks to iFoster and Binti for sponsoring this episode of The Imprint Weekly Podcast. Reading Room It’s Newsmatch season! Please consider donating to support this podcast and the incredible work that our Imprint reporters do every day. If you donate this month, your contribution will be DOUBLED! www.Imprintnews.org/donate White House Watch: Our Ongoing Coverage https://imprintnews.org/special-series/white-house-watch Alex Adams Nominated to Lead Administration for Children and Families https://imprintnews.org/youth-services-insider/alex-adams-nominated-to-lead-administration-for-children-and-families/259907 Trump’s Child Welfare Leader Vows to Protect Benefits Paid to Foster Youth https://imprintnews.org/youth-services-insider/adams-vows-curb-abusive-practice-foster-youth-benefits/268451 Trump Appointee Demands States Roll Back Foster Parenting Rules That Aim to Protect LGBTQ+ Youth  https://bit.ly/453vaxF Trump’s Child Welfare Leader Vows to Protect Benefits Paid to Foster Youth https://imprintnews.org/youth-services-insider/adams-vows-curb-abusive-practice-foster-youth-benefits/268451 Idaho Child Welfare Leader Pushed Rapid Reforms in Brief Tenure Before Trump Appointment To Federal Office https://imprintnews.org/top-stories/idaho-child-welfare-leader-pushed-rapid-reforms-in-brief-tenure-before-trump-nomination-to-federal-office/267413 Oregon Senator Presses Trump Admin for Action on Foster Care, Head Start and Migrant Youth https://imprintnews.org/youth-services-insider/oregon-senator-presses-trump-admin-for-action-on-foster-care-head-start-and-migrant-youth/268868 Acronyms and initials used in this interview: TANF: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families CFSR: Child and Family Services Reviews PIP: Program Improvement Plan APSR: Annual Progress and Services Report SSBG: Social Services Block Grant CSBG: Community Services Block Grant RGA Republic Governors Association FYI: Foster Youth to Independence ETV: Chafee Education and Training Voucher

    1h 19m
  4. 12/02/2025

    Trump’s Second Term Child Welfare Agenda

    President Trump’s White House event announcing an executive order on foster care got a lot of attention. But it is not the only indicator of what the administration might have in mind for policy making in child welfare during his second term. We dive into the specifics of the executive order and several other interesting announcements from Trump’s team, then step back and try to describe the big picture.  It’s Newsmatch season! Please consider donating to support this podcast and the incredible work that our Imprint reporters do every day. If you donate this month, your contribution will be DOUBLED! www.Imprintnews.org/donate Reading Room 2025 Imprint Reporting Highlights Discussion, Tuesday, Nov. 9, 10am PST/1pm EST https://imprintnews.org/event/2025-imprint-reporting-highlights With New Executive Order, Trump Thrusts Foster Care Into National Spotlight https://imprintnews.org/top-stories/with-new-executive-order-trump-thrusts-foster-care-into-national-spotlight/268739 The Other Trump Child Welfare Doctrine Issued This Month https://imprintnews.org/youth-services-insider/the-other-trump-child-welfare-doctrine-issued-this-month/268999 Trump Administration Says It’s Aiming to Significantly Increase Foster Home Capacity https://imprintnews.org/top-stories/trump-administration-to-increase-foster-home-capacity/268969 Trump’s Child Welfare Leader Vows to Protect Benefits Paid to Foster Youth https://imprintnews.org/youth-services-insider/adams-vows-curb-abusive-practice-foster-youth-benefits/268451 Trump Administration Grants Waiver Permitting Discrimination by Child Welfare Providers https://imprintnews.org/featured/trump-grants-waiver-permitting-discrimination-by-child-welfare-providers/33541 Designated Placements In, Conversion Therapy Out: Biden’s Rule for LGBTQ+ Foster Youth https://imprintnews.org/youth-services-insider/new-biden-rule-lgbtq-placements-in-conversion-therapy-out/249274 Tech Alphabet Soup and Child Welfare, with Carole Hussey https://imprintnews.org/podcast/tech-alphabet-soup-child-welfare

    35 min
  5. 11/16/2025

    From the Barber’s Chair to the BRO Experience, with Barry Cooper

    Barry Cooper is founder of the BRO Experience, a Brooklyn-based organization that uses cognitive behavioral therapy at the center of its approach to mental health support for young men of color. He is among this year’s winners of the David Prize, which each year goes to five New Yorkers with an extraordinary idea for change. Cooper joined us to discuss his own adolescence growing up in the Bedford Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, and how his first early career as a barber informed his approach with the BRO Experience. We also talked about a new short documentary about the organization — We All Deserve to Be Well — and what he plans to do with the $200,000 that comes with the David Prize. Note one: We will discuss President Trump’s executive order on foster care in a subsequent episode, but a link to reporter Michael Fitzgerald’s coverage of the order is in our show notes.  Note two: It’s Newsmatch season! Any donation to The Imprint for the rest of the year will be DOUBLED, so please consider supporting this show and everything else we do here at The Imprint. To support our work visit: www.Imprintnews.org/donate Reading Room The BRO Experience https://www.thebroexperience.org/ We All Deserve to Be Well (Trailer) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmY6hyXG5j8&t=10s The David Prize https://thedavidprize.org/ With New Executive Order, Trump Thrusts Foster Care Into National Spotlight https://imprintnews.org/top-stories/with-new-executive-order-trump-thrusts-foster-care-into-national-spotlight/268739

    45 min
5
out of 5
46 Ratings

About

The Imprint Weekly Podcast offers listeners a regular review of news and trends in America's child welfare and juvenile justice systems, along with other critical services for youth and families. Join Imprint Senior Editor John Kelly for a discussion of the week's major headlines, plus interviews with leaders in the field.

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