(Iowa News Service) DES MOINES, Iowa – On any given day in Iowa, about 6,000 children are in foster care, but the number placed with families instead of in group or institutional settings is on the rise. A new report looks at data from the child-welfare system over a 10-year period to see how placements for young people in foster care have changed. The report says nationwide, care systems placed 86% of foster children in families in 2017, compared with 81% in 2007.

Ann Discher, executive director for the Child and Family Policy Center, says the rate in Iowa was even better, with 88% placed in 2017, up 10 percentage points from 10 years earlier – but the picture isn’t as bright for older kids. “For teenagers, progress has actually been a lot slower, moving kids out of group settings and into family settings,” says Discher. “And that’s really a big deal, because actually, older children are far more likely to be placed in group or institutional settings than younger children.”

The report was released by the Annie E. Casey Foundation as part of its KIDS COUNT project. Rob Geen, director of policy and advocacy reform with the Casey Foundation, says persistent racial disparities also showed up in the data, and states need to address them. “While I’m talking about a 10-year trend to show a fairly significant increase in placing kids in families, we’re seeing much greater gains for white children than we are for African-American Children,” says Geen. “So, there’s more that we can do for African-American children that we need to work on.”

Discher says the research shows that any child removed from a home by the state does better when they’re placed in a family setting than in a group or institutional setting. “Kids who are with families, they tend to do better in school, they are much less likely to have an early pregnancy, they are much less likely to run away,” says Discher. “They’re far more likely to stay in school and graduate from high school or get a GED.” She’s also pleased about a new federal law, the Family First Prevention Services Act, signed into law last year. She says it shifts funding away from group placement and requires that the child-welfare system find families more quickly for teens and young people of color.

It’s Bernie versus Beto in Iowa on a busy campaign weekend in the early nominating states. The two 2020 Democratic presidential candidates are holding dueling events just days after Bernie Sanders won the campaign cash derby for the first quarter of the year. The Vermont senator raised more than $18 million in 41 days, while Beto O’Rourke, a former Texas congressman, reported $9.4 million in 18 days. The money is important in their efforts to meet a new Democratic National Committee threshold for 20 coveted spots in presidential debates that begin in June.

But their stops in Iowa, with an emphasis on young people, are key gauges of support in a state that hosts the nation’s first nominating caucuses. Sanders planned two town halls and a rally, part of a three-day swing. State Republicans criticized Sanders and other Democrats for politicking in Iowa while the state recovers from Missouri River flooding that has caused a crisis. O’Rourke scheduled six house parties around the Des Moines area. His five-day swing through the state has focused on student town halls, and he intended to cap his visit with one more on Sunday, at the University of Iowa.

Other declared or prospective candidates were set to tour the early voting states of New Hampshire and South Carolina on Saturday.

A traffic stop in Adams County at around 12:50-a.m. today (Saturday), resulted in the arrest of 29-year old Ian Gepner, from Corning. Gepner was arrested for Possession of a Controlled Substance, and Possession of Paraphernalia. He was transported to the Adams County Jail.

(FORT MADISON) – A staff member at the Iowa State Penitentiary at Ft. Madison became extremely ill Friday, after coming into contact with an unknown substance. The substance is believed to have come from a bottle of eye drops. Other staff at the institution quickly quarantined the substance, and the staff member was taken to the local hospital. The woman’s condition stabilized, and she was released to recover at home.

The substance that is suspected to have caused the staff member to become ill has been submitted to the State Crime Lab in Ankeny for testing by the Division of Criminal Investigations.

The incident remains under investigation.