Safe Passage International, a charity working with unaccompanied children and refugees, has been granted permission to launch a judicial review of the decision to halt refugee family reunion after it claimed the suspension was unlawful. Mr Justice Fordham accepted that the suspension should be open to a legal challenge after the court heard that the decision breaches the Home Office's duty to have regard to the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.
Parents should be involved in the "vast majority" of cases where a child questions their gender, according to new government guidance for all English schools. The legally-binding advice says schools should not initiate steps towards social transitioning - when pupils change their name, pronoun or clothes to reflect their gender identity - and should instead consider carefully what other support a child might need.
Federal agents took the child, Liam Conejo Ramos, from a running car while it was in the family's driveway on Tuesday afternoon, Columbia Heights Public Schools Superintendent Zena Stenvik said during a news conference on Wednesday. The officers then told the child to knock on the door to his home to see if other people were inside, essentially using a five-year-old as bait, Stenvik said.
Santa Clara County has paid $5.5 million to settle a lawsuit over its former chief pediatrician for foster kids, a one-time foster and adoptive parent accused of sexually abusing a boy in his care, according to his lawyer. The settlement agreement between the county and the former foster youth, a Northern California resident now in his 30s, is the first time the county has paid damages to one of Dr. Patrick Clyne's accusers and attorneys say more lawsuits are imminent.
When families seek out apartments, they are searching for more than a place to lay their heads. They are searching for safety and community in neighborhoods with decent schools. When we fail to deliver affordable options that meet these needs, parents are forced to raise their children in overcrowded apartments, to shuttle between unstable living arrangements, or even to turn to temporary shelters.
Over my decades of practice, seeing thousands of people who use donor conception to have their children, I have seen a steady increase in people who want to either co‑parent or who plan to use the sperm or eggs of someone they know and plan to call that person "mom" or "dad." While I have seen many of these beautiful arrangements work out well, many have not.
Elsa is a beautiful little girl, a raucous bundle of excitement and laughter. I am pleased to have seen photos of her. I know from reports that she lights up the space around her. She is happy and settled in her new family, as yet unaware of how she differs from other children. Her best chance in life comes with a permanent placement in an alternative family.
The company's overall rate of profit on these contracts is capped at around 6%, but Mears' operations across the UK exceeded that limit to the tune of 13.8m. Mears recorded its highest rate of profit in Northern Ireland, peaking at 17%. That was partly due to the fact asylum seekers in Northern Ireland don't have to be dispersed among different local authorities like they do in the UK, reducing transport and administrative costs.
Year-end giving can be a moment of reflection, but for businesses and philanthropy alike, it should also include looking forward and asking the question, what's next? One throughline from this past year is uncertainty. Uncertainty has rewritten how we work, live, and lead. Yet, one thing that still holds true is we share a responsibility to keep systems strong so no one is left behind, especially children.
The Department of Children and Families erroneously thought 4-year-old A'zella Ortiz had moved to New York before she was allegedly killed by her father in Worcester last year, a new report says, which argues DCF failed to support her and her siblings for years. "Although the ultimate tragic outcome of this case is rare, in other ways this case is like the vast majority of DCF cases," the new report from the state's Office of the Child Advocate said.
Technology has impacted every area of our lives, and its influence on families is undeniable. The modern parenting conversation around technology focuses on concerns like excessive screen time and overexposure through social media (Overuse of Devices and Social Media Top Parent Concerns, 2023). However, there's a hidden crisis within the modern family that we risk overlooking in our discussions about technology: parental and caregiver substance use disorder (SUD).
The attorney general, Judith Collins, said on Thursday the decision to establish a public inquiry was due to the significant public interest in the case, and concern with the children's welfare. The inquiry will look into whether government agencies took all practicable steps to protect the safety and welfare of the Phillips children, Collins said in a statement.
Nathan Trevallion, a former chef from Bristol, and his wife, Catherine Birmingham, a former horse-riding teacher from Melbourne, bought a dilapidated property in a wooded area in Palmoli, in the central Italian region of Abruzzo, in 2021. The aim was to raise their three children Utopia Rose, 8, and six-year-old twins Galorian and Bluebell as close to nature as possible. They grew their own food, generated electricity via solar power and extracted their water from a well.
It was a Sunday this past June, and Virginia Ortega was heading to work at her job cleaning hotel rooms, putting in overtime so she could pay her rent. She asked her son Cesar (a pseudonym), an autistic 16-year-old who also suffers from hallucinations, if she should find someone to watch him while she worked, but he said no, he was old enough to stay home alone.
Robert Albon, who calls himself Joe Donor, has appealed to the courts to gain access to at least four of his biological children against their mothers' wishes. In a rare move, a judge named him in 2023 to warn women of the risks of using his services, which he promotes on social media. Albon, who has appeared on This Morning and in a Channel 4 documentary,
Having a child should be the greatest day of a New Yorkers' life; it was for me. On that day, you should not have to worry about where you're going to take your baby once you leave the hospital. You should not have to worry about whether your child will grow up on the verge of homelessness or in a home. In 2024 alone, over 2,000 babies were born in New York City shelters that's 2,000 too many.
Thanks to the trend for gentle parenting, the concept of big feelings has become big money online, and for the most part I welcome that (Big Feelings isn't the only song that reflects this cultural shift; the animation Small Potatoes on CBeebies has a song that goes Feelings / I've got so many feelings, which my husband likes to sing to me when I'm premenstrual).
Men's heavy drinking is fueling a hidden crisis affecting millions of women and children worldwide. The harms, from violence to financial instability, are especially severe where gender inequality is high. Experts warn that alcohol policies must include gender-responsive strategies to protect vulnerable families. They call for reforms combining regulation, prevention, and community action. A sweeping global review has revealed that men's alcohol consumption is causing widespread harm to women and children, from violence and neglect to lost educational and life opportunities. Credit: Shutterstock
Los Angeles county will pay $20m to the family of a four-year-old boy who was tortured to death by his parents six years ago in a case that brought scrutiny of the region's child welfare system. Noah Cuatro died in a hospital in 2019, days before his fifth birthday, after being found motionless at the family's apartment in Palmdale, north of LA. His parents, Jose Maria Cuatro Jr and Ursula Elaine Juarez, later pleaded no contest to murder and torture charges.
