OCTOBER 6, 2025 – 

Introduced by Councilmember Zachary Parker, Chair of the DC Council’s Committee on Youth Affairs, the Coordinating Assistance, Rehabilitation, and Empowerment (C.A.R.E.) for Youth Plan is a 16-bill policy package—developed alongside impacted youth and their families, advocates, lawyers, judges, agency employees, and experts—aimed at improving outcomes for youth involved in DC’s juvenile justice and child welfare systems. The plan addresses a range of issues facing young people in the District, including truancy, financial stability, neglect, parent engagement, and more. Read the press release here. 

The C.A.R.E. for Youth Plan includes the following pieces of legislation: 

• • Pay Our Youth a Fair Summer Wage Amendment Act of 2025
    • Raises the hourly pay for youth ages 14-15 from $6.25 to $10.00. This adjustment acknowledges the increased cost of living and aims to provide a substantial financial reward for their dedication and hard work.
    • Raises the pay for youth above 16 years old to minimum wage to incentivize older youth to actively contribute to the workforce.

• • Increasing Support for Grandparent and Close Relative Caregivers Amendment Act of 2025
    • Extends eligibility for Grandparent and Close Relative Caregiver subsidies from age 18 to age 21, aligning with other subsidies and based on feedback with kinship caregivers. Research shows children in kinship care experience greater placement stability, fewer behavioral issues, and stronger cultural identity than those in non-relative foster care.
    • Increases the Grandparent and Close Relative Caregiver subsidies to the maximum allowable amount ($27.92), adjusted for inflation in future years. For comparison, the Adoption, Kinship, and Guardian subsidy base rates are $38. Financial support reduces placement disruptions, which are linked to poor academic and mental health outcomes. Councilmembers Lewis-George and Parker increased this rate before on a one-year basis. This legislation will make this increase permanent.

• • Statutory Neglect Amendment Act of 2025
    • Separates definitions of “abused” and “abandoned” to reduce legal ambiguity.
    • Prohibits using welfare status, homelessness, or unstable housing as sole grounds for neglect findings.
    • Distinguishes physical discipline from physical injury to reduce misinterpretation.
    • Aligns with national child welfare best practices that emphasize family preservation and reduce unnecessary removals.
    • Reduces racial and economic bias in neglect findings, which disproportionately affect low-income and Black families.
• • Support, Opportunity, Unity, and Legal Relationships (SOUL) Amendment Act of 2025
    • Defines “Support Family,” including roles of caregivers and supporters.
    • Establishes Family Court procedures for selecting and formalizing support family permanency plans.
    • Sets forth rights, responsibilities, and adjudicatory hearing standards for the establishment of a support family.
    • Grants the Family Court authority to issue Support Family Orders and mandates confidentiality.
    • Authorizes CFSA to provide subsidies to SOUL caregivers.
    • Expands permanency options for older youth who may not want adoption but still need legal and emotional support.

• • Improving School Attendance Outcomes Amendment Act of 2025
    • Requires schools to notify OSSE after 5 and OAG after 10 and 15 unexcused absences, triggering resource distribution and caretaker alerts. Research is clear that early intervention is key and that chronic absenteeism is a leading indicator of long-term academic failure and justice-system involvement.
    • Redirects screened-out referrals from CFSA to DHS when educational neglect is not substantiated so that DHS may contact caretakers and offer support services.
    • Mandates a joint CFSA-DHS report on educational neglect referrals.
    • Instructs the Deputy Mayor for Education to develop a unified absenteeism referral system, combining educational neglect and truancy matters under one referral and intervention system by March 31, 2028.
    • Shifts from punitive to supportive approaches, aligning with national trends in truancy reform.

• • Education Continuity for Students in the Care of D.C. Amendment Act of 2025
    • Mandates timely school enrollment, transition teams, and plans for students in care of the DYRS.
    • Requires each LEA to designate a point-of-contact for these students.
    • Directs OSSE to facilitate record transfers and publish a system-wide course catalogue.
    • Requires LEAs to adopt uniform transcript evaluations, grant partial credit, and provide transcripts within 14 days.
    • Mandates flexible graduation options and OSSE oversight of implementation.
    • Addresses educational credit loss and delayed graduation, improving educational attainment of systems-involved youth and reducing justice involvement.

• • Safe Pregnancy, Delivery, and Postpartum Care for Youth at DYRS Amendment Act of 2025
    • Requires DYRS to make pregnancy tests available to youth upon custody in a DYRS facility.
    • Mandates culturally responsive prenatal and postpartum care and for DYRS to submit a formal policy to Council.
    • Disrupts higher risks of poor maternal outcomes for incarcerated pregnant youth
    • Reduces liability and improves health equity by aligning DYRS practices with national correctional health standards.

• • Youth Financial Literacy Pilot Amendment Act of 2025
    • Provides $50 weekly stipends to eligible students under a pilot program for 40 weeks.
    • Requires independent evaluation of pilot outcomes.
    • Financial literacy paired with real money increases retention and real-world application of skills.

• • Streamlining Services for Children Amendment Act of 2025
    • Establishes the District Office for Children within CFSA and the Interagency Council for Children with cross-agency representation.
    • Cross-agency collaboration reduces service duplication and ensures children don’t fall through bureaucratic cracks.

• • Strengthening Capacity and Transparency at DYRS Amendment Act of 2025
    • Requires daily and monthly reporting on youth demographics and incidents which were previously the responsibility of the Office of Independent Juvenile Justice Facilities Oversight (OIJJFO)
    • Defines recidivism in District code and establishes a recidivism metric that must be reported by DYRS publicly.
    • Directs the Mayor to create a one-year action plan to address overcrowding at DYRS’s YSC within 120 days. YSC has been over it’s 98-bed capacity every day this year since April 22. The facility’s population reached a high of 131 on September 10. This is unacceptable.

• • Promoting Parental Engagement at DYRS Amendment Act of 2025
    • Requires DYRS to maintain and share records of parental meeting attempts with the DC Council committee with oversight.
    • Requires DYRS to make outreach to parents and guardians prior to the predisposition meeting and every six months thereafter during the youth’s commitment.

• • Empowering Parents in CFSA Investigations Amendment Act of 2025
    • Requires CFSA to notify caretakers of free legal resources at the initiation of investigation. Legal representation reduces wrongful removals and improves fairness in child welfare proceedings.
    • Mandates informing caretakers of their right to counsel and resources available with the Ombudsperson for Children. Empowering parents builds trust in the system and encourages cooperation with services.

• • Work-based Learning Amendment Act of 2025
    • Requires the Deputy Mayor for Education to produce a report within 12 months:
      • evaluating the District’s definition of work-based learning;
      • creating a proposal for financial incentives for employers;
      • creating a plan for establishing work-based programming in all high schools as part of graduation requirements; and,
      • outlining challenges in coordinating work-based learning. 

• • Child Fatality Review Committee Amendment Act of 2025
    • Makes changes to relevant law so that the relevant Council committee with oversight of the Child and Family Services Agency is permanently included as a member of the Child Fatality Review Committee

• • Child Abuse Investigation Multidisciplinary Team Certification Amendment Act of 2025
    • Mandate rather than request the involvement of an accredited Children’s Advocacy Center (CAC) and regulate its participation in multidisciplinary team (MDT) investigations of child abuse.

• • Youth Records Oversight and Transparency Amendment Act of 2025
    • Requires the Chair of the Council Committee with oversight of DYRS to be granted access to juvenile records in cases concerning delinquency or need of supervision cases when necessary for the discharge of official duties
    • Requires the Chair of the Council Committee with oversight of CFSA to be granted access to juvenile records in cases of neglect when necessary for the discharge of official duties
    • Requires the Office of the Ombudsperson for Children to access juvenile records necessary for the discharge of official duties