Joseph Shapiro

New York City officials announced the city will no longer take all Social Security checks from children to pay for foster care. Last year NPR and The Marshall Project investigated the common practice.

In every state, governments charge parents for the cost of foster care when children are taken away. When that happens, NPR found, poor parents can't make ends meet, so families are kept apart longer.

Congress told the Transportation Security Administration and airlines in 2018 to improve air travel for people with disabilities. But TSA data and stories from flyers suggest little has improved.

Does having a disability affect your experience with TSA screening at the airport? If so, NPR is doing stories about this and we'd like to hear from you.

Los Angeles County plans to ensure foster youth who get Social Security can use the money later, going against the common practice of child welfare agencies nationwide to use benefits to pay for care.

When kids age out of foster care, they face high rates of unemployment and homelessness. An NPR investigation finds that many of these youths were entitled to federal funds that could have helped.

Many kids in foster care are entitled to Social Security benefits. An investigation by NPR and The Marshall Project found some states take the checks, and use private consultants to find the money.

In at least 36 states and the District of Columbia, child welfare agencies use a child's benefit checks to offset the cost of foster care, often leaving them with a tattered safety net as adults.

New actions from the Office For Civil Rights at the Department of Health and Human Services aim to fight discrimination against people with disabilities who have COVID-19, like being denied treatment.

The fight to save the life of one woman reveals a grim pattern: In Oregon, people with disabilities were denied health care during the pandemic, even without a shortage of ventilators or other care.

During a pandemic, doctors make hard choices about who gets care. Federal law says they can't rule out someone based on disability or age. But some worry the decisions are made behind closed doors.

In an Oregon hospital, a disabled woman fought for her life as her friends and advocates pleaded for proper care. Her case raises the question: Are disabled lives equally valued during a pandemic?

American Airlines reversed a recent policy that banned wheelchairs weighing more than 300 pounds, which includes many power wheelchairs, from some of its regional jets following an NPR report.

A new policy from American Airlines, the largest airline in the United States, put a limit on the weight of a wheelchair. Now, many power wheelchairs are too heavy to fly on smaller regional jets.

People can spend months recovering from COVID-19 and sometimes have lasting disabilities. That is especially hard for undocumented people, who often are in high-risk jobs without health insurance.

People who contract COVID-19 can spend months in recovery and end up with long-term disabilities. It's especially hard for undocumented immigrants who are at high risk an don't have health insurance.

The hospital said it made a humane decision to end treatment. Michael Hickson's widow says doctors ended his care because they underestimated the life of a man with significant disabilities.

As the Americans with Disabilities Act turns 30, a founder of the disability rights movement, Judy Heumann, talks to activist Imani Barbarin, born a few months after the landmark law was signed.

Natural disasters are already deadly for the elderly and people with disabilities. During the pandemic, advocates say disaster preparation has fallen short in meeting the needs of the most at risk.

With many U.S. prisons on lockdown amid the pandemic, keeping prisoners in their cells has emerged as a way to stop viral spread. Advocates worry that will increase the use of solitary confinement.