This Week's News: Youth in Transition

2008-08-11T10:02:00.000-04:00

Education

Shared data: A new system could provide advance warning on school dropouts
Capitol Weekly – August 7, 2008
The state Department of Education’s recent announcement that one in four students drops out of school was grim news for Californians but a promising step forward in understanding the scope of a crisis. Instead of making an educated guess as they had been forced to do in the past, education officials were able to calculate the dropout rate by using a new system that tracks students as they as they move from district to district. When fully implemented, the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System can do much more than tell us the bad news after students drop out. It can help educators identify strategies likely to help children before they fail. A debate in Sacramento about access to the new data will determine whether the tracking system reaches its potential-to help educators close a wide achievement gap and policymakers ensure that billions of dollars in education funding are spend on programs that work.

Task force holds hearings on keeping pregnant, parenting moms from dropping out
The Chicago Tribune – August 5, 2008
Shanell Stampley desperately wanted to stay in high school after giving birth just before her freshman year. But making it to school on time, or at all, was a constant struggle for the 15-year-old, who lived in a women’s shelter at the time and rode a bus to drop off her baby with a sitter. After too many late arrivals and missed classes, Stampley said, she was expelled from Juarez Community Academy in Chicago. She has told her story to a state task force that is studying how to keep students in school during pregnancy and parenthood, or when facing domestic violence or sexual abuse. Task force members say they hope that the discussions will lead to policy recommendations and legislative support for young parents and those dealing with abuse. “We’re going out in the field to find out from those children who are directly impacted,” said Sonya Whitaker, and educational consultant and co-chairwoman of the state task force with state Rep. Karen Yarbrough (D-Maywood). “We want to give children a second chance at being successful.”

GEAR UP Guides Low-Income Students to College
RedOrbit – August 6, 2008
Navigating a smooth course through high school and higher education can be a daunting task for event the highly motivated, but calming the turbulence of career choices for Yuma students is made easier due to a federal program. Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) is intended to boost the number of low-income students (schools with more than 50 percent receiving free or reduced lunch) to succeed in post-secondary education. GEAR UP provides college scholarships funded in part by the U.S. Department of Education and matched dollar for dollar by individuals in the professions and local districts with either time or money. The program advocates for a higher level of achievement, said Alvina Johnson, Yuma’s GEAR UP coordinator. The mission of GEAR UP is to ensure students graduate high school on time, reduce the rate of dropouts and increase the entrance of students into a two- or four-year college, Johnson stressed.

Juvenile Justice

Perry grants $1.7 million for state juvenile justice system; EP gets $180,000
ABC Channel 7 – August 8, 2008
EL PASO – Governor Rick Perry awarded more than $1.7 million in grants to 25 programs dedicated to promoting greater accountability in the juvenile justice system, according to a news release. Three agencies in El Paso that deal with juveniles received more than $180,000. The grants are awarded through the federal Juvenile Accountability Block Grant (JABG) program and distributed by the Governor’s Criminal Justice Division (CJD), the release said. The JABG funding provides restitution, community service, victim-offender mediation and other methods of rehabilitation and reform through the juvenile justice system.

Foster Care

Close the Educational Opportunity Gap for College-Bound Foster Youth
MarketWatch – August 6, 2008
It is back-to-school time and many young people are saying goodbye to their families and heading off to college. Others, however, are making the journey alone: thousands of foster care teens who have “aged out” of the system. For many of these youth, education has been the one promising constant in their lives – and now, at the threshold of adulthood, it is a struggle to find financial and emotional support to sustain their educational and career goals. At any given point, there are more than 500,000 U.S. children in foster care. Every year, more than 25,000 of them age out of the system and face a challenging world without the financial or family support. Only half of them finish high school and only about 13 percent start college. Of those who do go to college, half drop out in the first year. For those involved in OFA’s programs, however, these numbers improve dramatically. More than 65 percent graduate from college within five years, a rate comparable to their peers.

This Week's News: Youth in Transition

2008-08-05T18:02:00.000-04:00

Education

Higher Education Bill Draws a Bead on Tuition Costs
The Christian Science Monitor – August 1, 2008
The rapid rise in college has caught the attention of Congress, which is taking steps to at least give the public reason to hope for a break on tuition bills. New legislation, expected to clear the House and Senate after press time on July 31, includes provisions designed to put pressure on colleges, universities, and states to rein in the escalating price of a college education. The best potential for doing so, some experts say, lies in the searchable college data that the US Department of Education will post online to bring transparency to tuition rates and the “net price” students pay after receiving aid. Within a year of the bill’s passage, students and parents should be able to use online calculators to estimate what any given college would cost based on their income level and family situation. Since most students receive financial aid, it’s important for families to see this net price, experts say, rather than simply compare based on the full-charge “sticker price.” There’s little agreement about how effective these new requirements of the Higher Education Opportunity Act will be, but many experts say they can’t hurt.

Higher-ed commission backs community college plan
The Tennessean – July 25, 2008
The Tennessee Higher Education Commission endorsed a proposal Thursday that would make a community college education free in Tennessee’s urban counties. Shelby County Mayor A.C. Wharton, a member of a new group called the Tennessee Urban Mayors Forum that is developing the idea, asked the commission at its quarterly meeting to back the proposal. The commission obliged. Wharton said that “the returns on it will be well worth any investment.” “We think this is a much-needed program, both for the intrinsic worth of its education offering, but also in helping the state recruit business and industry. This is a signature step for a state to say that if you want to go beyond 12th grade, you won’t be able to say I don’t have the money.”

Ogden district shuffles students and schools
The Salt Lake Tribune – August 5, 2008
Ninth-graders about to begin classes in the Ogden School District won’t advance on to high school as they have in years past. Instead, they’ll remain in junior high school for one more year as part of the district’s overall grade reconfiguration, but with new science classrooms and a few art media centers. The format change takes effect this fall after the Ogden Board of Education three years ago approved it as part of an effort to bolster student achievement in ninth grade while also crafting smaller learning environments at the high school level in grades 10 through 12. Studies indicate ninth grade is a make-or-break year for many students, the point after which many move on toward academic success or drop out of school. “By keeping ninth-graders in junior high school, the change will increase the ninth grade passing rate and improve curriculum,” Don Belnap, Ogden school board president, said in a statement.

Juvenile Justice

Juveniles Don’t Belong in Adult Prisons
The Huffington Post – August 5, 2008
Jails and prisons are dangerous places for anybody, but especially for children and teens. Many of these institutions house vicious predators who have been locked up for brutal violent crimes. Yet on any given day, approximately 9,500 juveniles under the age of 18 are locked up in adult penal institutions. Children as young as 15 can be prosecuted as adults in many states without review by a judge or court hearing. The Campaign for Youth Justice report, “Jailing Juveniles: The Dangers of Incarcerating Youth in Adult Jails in America, “released in November 2007, outlines the challenges to keeping children safe in adult jails. It catalogs the numerous jurisdictions throughout the United States where teens are placed in great danger because of the variety of flawed policies and laws governing incarceration. The report argues that children and teens should not be held to the same standard of accountability for their actions as grown-ups, citing research that shows the developmental differences between adolescents and adults. These findings indicate that the prefrontal cortex, which governs the “executive functions” of reasoning, advanced thinking and impulse control, is one of the last areas of the brain to mature.

Foster Care

Psychotropic Medications Overused Among Foster Children
PsychCentral – August 2, 2008
New research finds that psychotropic medications are frequently used to treat youth in foster care. The pattern is disturbing because effectiveness and safety of the pharmaceuticals has not been established. In a study of Texas children with Medicaid coverage, the latest in a series of analyses of state Medicaid records, foster care youth received at least three times more psychotropic drugs than comparable children in poor families. The Texas study also indicated that decision to give some children three or more psychotropic drugs may be largely based on behavioral and emotional symptoms rather than conclusive diagnosis of a specific mental condition. Zito says, “There are serious behavioral and emotional problems with many foster children and we want to make sure they are medicated appropriately. These are our troubled children.”

On the board
Pasadena Star-News – August 3, 2008
Pasadena City College has received an $80,000 award from the Foundation for California Community Colleges, which will help PCC assist former foster teens in their transition into self-sufficiency. PCC was one of eight community colleges that received foundation money for that purpose – a total of $630,000 in awards. The money will go to support Youth Empowerment Strategies for Success-California (YESS-California) programs. YESS- California helps current and former foster youth through mentoring, tutoring and life-skills training. Each year, more than 4,000 foster youth in California become independent. Many of them lack life and job skills, such as handling a personal budget, applying for and enrolling in college, and living on their own. Many become homeless within years of emancipation. Participating colleges provide services such as one-on-one mentoring, resource referral, classroom training and employment services.

This Week's News: Youth in Transition

2008-07-21T13:40:00.001-04:00

Education

States avoid slashing higher ed money
Stateline.org – July 17, 2008
Tuition at the University of Kentucky will increase 9 percent this fall, University of Maine students will pay about 10 percent more and University of Michigan-Ann Arbor tuition will rise 5.6 percent. Yet students at those schools could feel lucky they aren’t paying even more. Despite a tough economic climate, several states are attempting to hold down college tuition – or at least not let increases get out of control – by avoiding deep cuts to higher education, an area that states have been quick to slash in past years when funds were low. The effort to hold down tuition stems from states tying their economic futures to an educated workforce. The biggest economic payoff for states will come from “sending their kids to college,” Diane Swonk, chief economist with Mesirow Financial, told governors at the National Governors Association meeting earlier this month in Philadelphia. To be competitive, workers will need at least a college degree, Swonk said, and since the federal government is not meeting this challenge, finding ways to educate people is falling to states and local jurisdictions.

Summer slide: Low-income students can lose ground when school is out
The Mercury News – July 16, 2008
They call it the “summer slide”. As June slips into July and then the dog days of August, many of the math skills, history lessons and new vocabulary words that students acquired during the school year slip without the routine of daily classes. Over time, such advantage as summer programs can catapult higher-income children even further ahead of their lower-income peers. That has educators increasingly worried that the achievement gap – the academic chasm that separates black and Latino students from their white and Asian peers – actually widens over the summer. The safety nets that exist during the school year – from easily available free and reduced price meals to one-on-one tutoring and after-school programs – are gone. And while summer programs do exist for disadvantaged kids, the slots are scarce. Also, those summer programs that do exist for low-income students are often launched only to disappear when grants dry up or budgets are cut. Alexander found the summer slide had a cumulative and devastating effect. “We followed the same group of students year to year,” said Alexander. “By the ninth grade, the low-income students were 3 ½ grade levels behind their more advantaged peers.”

24% of California Students Drop Out Of High School
eNews 2.0 – July 17, 2008
Employing a new system for tracking high school dropouts, California discovered a rate significantly higher than the one previously calculated by educators, using another technique. The state issued the results on Wednesday, estimating that 1 in 4 California students gave up school last year. Beyond the proved 24 percent dropout rate, the data released by state schools chief Jack O’Connell also shows that African American and Latino students quit school in a bigger proportion than other ethnic groups. The state Education Department says it can now determine dropouts far more precisely making use of its new “Statewide Student Identifier System” in which every student is given an exclusive, anonymous ID number. With the help of the new method, schools can follow the trace of missing students for the first time, and find out whether students sign up to another in California, even if it is in a different district or city. The system, which will cost $33 million over the next three years, other than the millions invested for the initial development, guarantees to eventually offer a considerably better manner to figure out where students go and their reasons for doing so.

Juvenile Justice

‘Gap kids’ fate to be decided in Family Court
The Providence Journal – July 11, 2008
Dozens of “gap kids” who were charged as adults during the 130 days when Rhode Island prosecuted 17-year-olds as adults are entitled to Family Court hearings to determine if they should be tried in adult courts, the state Supreme Court ruled yesterday. “We hold that juveniles, including defendants before us, should have been presented in the Family Court in the first instance, “ Justice Maureen McKenna Goldberg wrote in the court’s 26-page opinion. “ A juvenile may be referred to adult court only after a probable-cause hearing and a finding by the hearing justice that waiver of jurisdiction is appropriate and consistent with the statute.” The decision detailed the “jurisdictional quagmire” that resulted from Governor Carcieri’s proposal to save money by treating 17-year-olds as adults in criminal matters. The General Assembly adopted the proposal, which was based on the assumption that the Adult Correctional Institutions would prove cheaper than the Training School. But the savings proved to be questionable, at best. And, Goldberg wrote, “The record is devoid of any legislative findings that this amendment constituted sound social policy, that it was in the best interests of the juvenile offenders to whom it would apply, or that it was a prudent fiscal measure.” The Assembly ended up repealing the law. But the repeal was not retroactive, so that a created a population of about 500 gap kids who had been charged as adults between July 1 and Nov. 8, 2007.

Report says Calif. should end juvenile prisons
The Mercury News – July 14, 2008
A state watchdog commission recommended Monday that California phase out its antiquated juvenile prisons by 2011, replacing them with regional lockups run by counties. The regional centers would hold only the most dangerous offenders under the proposal by the Little Hoover Commission. Less serious offenders would be housed at local juvenile halls. Commissioners said the state should end its three-year experiment with combining youth and adult prisons under the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Authority over youth prisons would be placed under an Office of Juvenile Justice reporting to the governor until the state ends its involvement. The report said giving counties responsibility for housing juvenile offenders would bring substantial savings but doesn’t estimate how much that would be. The commission found that the state has made some progress in reforming its youth prison system. Next week, an Alameda County judge will consider whether those reforms are taking too long. If so, the judge might appoint a receiver with broad oversight powers.

Foster Care

DCF Settlement Calls For More Foster Families
The Courant – July 18, 2008
In the latest development in a nearly 20-year battle, a federal judge approved a settlement Thursday that orders the state to recruit more foster families to help troubled children and reduce the number of non-family group homes for abused youth. The order represents the newest corrective action plan in the case knows as Juan F., a long-running battle between the troubled Department of Children and Families and children’s advocates who filed a class-action lawsuit against the agency. “After dragging its feet for more than a year on issues critical to the well-being of Connecticut’s abused and neglected children, DCF has finally made a serious commitment to address them,” said Ira Lustbader, a lawyer for Children’s Rights, a national watchdog group that has clashed with DCF for nearly two decades. In a 14-page agreement, the two sides agreed that the state must add 850 new foster family homes over the next two years. Currently, more than 30 percent of the children who are under DCF’s care do not live with families, which is far above the national benchmark of 18 percent. Instead, they live in expensive settings that include emergency shelters, hospitals, treatment centers, and non-family group homes.

This Week's News: Youth in Transition

2008-07-14T13:19:00.002-04:00

Education

Illegal immigrants face threat of no college
USA Today – July 6, 2008
Some states are making it harder for illegal immigrants to attend college by denying in-state tuition benefits or banning undocumented students. In the past two years, Arizona, Colorado, Georgia and Oklahoma have refused in-state tuition benefits to students who entered the USA illegally with their parents but grew up and went to school in the state. That represents a reversal from earlier this decade, when 10 states passed laws allowing in-state rates for such students. This summer, South Carolina became the first state to bar undocumented students from all public colleges and universities. Opponents say students shouldn’t be penalized for their parents’ actions. Helping them is “the right thing to do even if it’s unpopular,” says North Carolina state Rep. Pricey Harrison, a Democrat who introduced a bill that would prevent state institutions from asking about students’ immigration status.

Homeless children get a taste of college with University of Texas at Dallas program
The Dallas Morning News – July 5, 2008
Single mothers are the fastest-growing segment of the homeless population, according to the National Coalition for the Homeless. In Dallas County, more than 2,000 women and children can be found living on the streets or in shelters on any given day, according to a 2007 Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance report. Many of these children jump from school to school, falling behind, dropping out and ending up in poverty like their parents. Rainbow Days, a Dallas-based nonprofit that provides life skills education to high-risk children, wants to break that cycle. Every year, the organization brings local children living in shelters to UT Dallas for a taste of college life. Most have never set foot on a college campus before. Neither have their parents. Rainbow Days doesn’t track its students, but its leaders believe in the program’s ability to fuel their ambitions and expand their horizons – in just one week.

Preventing dropouts key in econ. develop.
Daily Leader - July 9, 2008
“In the industrial community, there’s an economic impact when students drop out of school,” Smith said. “The state is losing money because students aren’t getting their diplomas. We hear from industries all the time that the number one thing they need is a trained workforce.” According to department of education statistics shown by Smith, the estimated lifetime earnings in Mississippi lost by one class of dropouts is estimated at $4 billion. In order to move the state toward a lower dropout rate, the department of education will require each school district to implement dropout prevention plans this fall. But Smith said local organizations like the chamber should also get involved in local schools to assist in any way possible. Smith said Mississippi school districts are losing an average of 2,000 students before they ever enter high school. In order to improve this number, she said, communities must come together and identify students who are at risk of dropping out.

Juvenile Justice

Close-to-Home Treatment for Youths Gains Notice
CityLimits.org - July 7, 2008
Dr. Clarice Bailey was sent to New York City by the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government to find out what it’s like inside the city’s program for juvenile justice reform. The Institute had its eye on the Department of Probation initiative called “Project Zero,” which seeks alternative kinds of rehabilitation to locking up young offenders in juvenile jail. Probation Commissioner Martin Horn started the program in 2003, with “zero” standing for the goal of sending no kids to juvenile correctional facilities outside the city. Instead, they would return home to live with their families, attend school as usual, and participate in intensive therapy sessions aimed at helping them get on the right path from inside their own neighborhoods. In the year before Project Zero began, 1,300 to 1,500 New York City youths were sent to juvenile facilities, according to Department of Probation (DOP) statistics. In 2004, the Department sent 1,257 juveniles to state correctional facilities, and by 2007, 795 juveniles were admitted. DOP data also show that from 2002 to 2007, the number of city youth incarcerated as a result of their Family Court judgment decreased by 27 percent. The DOP reports that this decline was caused by the Project Zero initiative.

S. F. juvenile hall braces for detainee surge
San Francisco Chronicle – July 4, 2008
The population of San Francisco’s juvenile hall is likely to spike now that the city has reversed its policy of shielding juvenile illegal immigrants convicted of felonies from federal immigration officials, city officials said Thursday. And the undocumented youths are likely to see the length of their stays in detention increase dramatically as the juvenile probation department faces fewer alternatives to locking them up. At least one city official warned that many of the teenagers could be detained for a year or more. In San Francisco, alternatives to locking them up include home detention with electronic ankle monitors, a stay at a group home, mandatory check-ins at four city-funded nonprofit centers that are open from 3 to 9pm daily, and participation in community programs that offer mentors and counseling. National research shows that finding alternatives to incarceration and stressing rehabilitation lowers the likelihood youths will commit more crimes, improves chances they’ll stay in school and saves tax dollars. But none of those options appear viable for illegal immigrant youths charged with felonies in San Francisco.

Foster Care

House Resolution Recognizes the Importance of Providing Workplace Opportunities for Foster Youth
Market Watch – July 11, 1008
A Congressional briefing will be held today to discuss House Resolution 1332, introduced yesterday by Congressman Dennis A. Cardoza (D-Calif.). Congress is being asked to support the resolution which encourages employment opportunities for foster youth. Every year, more than 25, 000 foster youth age out of the foster care system with few resources to start their own lives. Research shows that these children are at a higher risk than their peers for bouts of homelessness, criminal activity and incarceration. Many lack a stable environment due to numerous foster home placements, and have limited family or community connections. Internships level the playing field for foster youth by providing them with access into the professional workplace, where they can build resumes, network with others and launch their careers. These experiences prove that with the right support, foster students can succeed and flourish.

This Week's News: Youth in Transition

2008-07-06T21:51:00.001-04:00

Education

6 States OK’d to Write Education Laws Outside ‘No Child’
FOXNEWS.COM – July 1, 2008
It’s a softening for how the No Child Left Behind currently works – with schools having to take certain steps at specific times for missing math and reading testing goals. Critics have complained that the approach is too rigid and treats schools the same regardless of whether they miss the mark by a little or a lot. The states getting more freedom under a pilot program are Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Illinois, Maryland and Ohio. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings made the announcement during a speech Tuesday in Austin, Texas. The states that won the approval have come up with plans to more closely tailor solutions to individual school’s problems and focus resources on schools in the worst shape. Some critics worry the changes, specifically the focus on the worst-performing schools, will take the pressure off schools that are generally doing well but having trouble with one group of students – such as a minority group or kids with disabilities.

Free-college programs multiply
USA Today – July 1, 2008
A scholarship program that offers free college tuition as a reward for attending public schools in a Michigan city is catching on in other communities seeking to revitalize their urban centers. Since November 2005, when anonymous donors in Kalamazoo, Mich., launched the Kalamazoo Promise scholarship, about a dozen cities, such as Pittsburgh, Denver and El Dorado, Ark., have started similar programs. Details vary by city, but most programs basically follow Kalamazoo’s model: It pays most or all tuition and fees to public universities or community colleges in the state for students who graduate from the public school system, as long as they start attending there by ninth grade. Those who start in kindergarten get full tuition; those who start in ninth grade, 65%. Kalamazoo’s school district, where enrollment declined for decades, rose by more than 1,200 students after the program began. Thousands of jobs are being created, according to Southwest Michigan First, an economic development firm. Financing is a challenge for cities interested in setting up free-tuition plans. Many rely partly on private funding.

Few school districts, nonprofits vying for state dropout aid
The Dallas Morning News – July 3, 2008
Just 57 school districts, charter schools and nonprofit groups – including several from the Dallas area – have applied for one of the state’s new dropout recovery grants. The Texas Education Agency said Thursday that 36 school districts – out of 1,031 in the state – are among the applicants for grants under the $6 million program aimed at helping dropouts complete their coursework so they can earn a high school diploma. Some lawmakers and education groups had voiced concern about proposed rules for the program that would allow nonprofit groups operating private schools to apply for a grant. Only six nonprofits were among the grant applicants and there is no guarantee that any will receive funding.

Juvenile Justice

Ariz. courts trying alternative juvenile justice
The Arizona Republic – June 30, 2008
There were almost 3,500 youths detained in Pima County in 2003, a number that plummeted to 2,583 last year and is still dropping. In year four of a wide-scale transformation of Pima County’s juvenile-justice system, troubled kids are being diverted into other alternatives. “We’re responding to national research which negates some commonly held beliefs that you can scare them straight,” said presiding Juvenile Court Judge Patricia Escher. “More frequently, when you detain young people inappropriately, what you do is send them on a path of criminality.” How states treat their kids, including those in the juvenile-justice system, got attention this month with the annual release of the Kids Count report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation in Baltimore, a private charitable organization “dedicated to helping build better futures for disadvantaged children in the United States.” Some offenders are just going home to wait for trial. Others, on intensive or standard probation or arrested for misdemeanor domestic violence offenses, go to evening programs that provide not only tutoring, life skills and dinner, but perhaps as importantly, a structure that keeps them off the streets.

Reforming Juvenile Injustice
The Huffington Post – July 2, 2008
Our nation’s juvenile justice policies are replete with contradictions between practices proven to prevent crime, and punitive laws politicians promote to get elected. Juvenile and criminal justice principles, scientific research on prevention, intervention, and adolescent brain development, and US treaty obligations argue against the “lock ‘em up and throw away the key” policies that harm children, increase recidivism and exacerbate crime. The Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Reauthorization Act (JJDPA), first enacted in 1974 and overdue for reauthorization, is pending in Congress. Next week, the Senate will consider this legislation and amendments to improve juvenile justice in this country. Current juvenile justice practices ignore children’s age and amenability to rehabilitation. On any given night in the United States, almost 10,000 children are held in adult jails and prisons, where they are particularly vulnerable to victimization because of their size and youth. The Centers for Disease Control recently reported that after release, children who are incarcerated in adult prisons commit more crimes, and more serious crimes, than children with similar histories held in juvenile facilities.

Foster Care

Judge demands state keep foster-care promises
The Seattle Times – July 1, 2008
A judge Monday gave the state Department of Social and Health Services 30 days to start keeping promises it made four years ago to settle a class-action lawsuit on behalf of thousands of foster children. Whatcom County Superior Court Judge Charles R. Synder said the state has made plenty of promises to closely monitor the health and well-being of children in its care, but has failed to keep those promises. The ruling, unexpected after Monday’s lengthy hearing, requires the state to find ways to make monthly visits to foster children, to get them prompt health screenings, to ensure that they see their siblings regularly and to keep caseloads at a level where this is possible. State officials said the agency is already making considerable strides toward these goals, thanks in part to recent funding.

This Week's News: Youth in Transition

2008-06-29T21:28:00.000-04:00

Education

Report: Racial gap narrows, but what did No Child law do?
USA Today – June 29, 2008
Math and reading test scores are up in most states since the No Child Left Behind law took effect in 2002, but it’s impossible to know how much credit the law deserves, a new report says. In an exhaustive study released Tuesday, the Center on Education Policy also concluded that the historically wide achievement gap between black and white children has generally narrowed in many states – exactly what NCLB supporters said they wanted to achieve when President Bush signed the law. But the law’s contributions are hard to measure because a number of states already were taking steps to boost reading math, the study’s authors say. And because every public school falls under the law, there is no group of students to use for comparison, they said. What the law clearly has done – the change some identify as its most notable benefit – is give researchers and parents the data to track student progress. By requiring testing in math and reading every year from third eighth grade and once in high school, the law provides a wealth of information about a school’s performance over time, broken down by such factors as race, income and disability.

Alternative schools gain popularity
StatesmanJournal.com – June 29, 2008
The Salem-Keizer School District is offering more alternative high school programs than ever this year, and one reason is to give students more options to find the right fit. With a build-it-and-they-will-come mentality, enrollment in alternative programs grew by nearly one-third last year after they were restructured and more were added. The district restructured its offerings from one degree-earning high school into two: Roberts and Early College high schools. New and expanded programs, combined with district staff dedicated to re-enrolling drop-outs, helped enrollment at alternative programs grow by 30 percent in a year, school officials say. Nearly 100 more students completed their high school degree through the two schools this year, administrator Dave Cook said. About 250 high school degrees were granted so far this year, compared to 160 degrees in 2006-07. Figures do not include GED completion, students who took alternative classes but graduated with their traditional high school class, or those that will finish in summer school this year.

Report: Class of ’08 dropouts lose state $11B over lifetime
Daily Chronicle – June 28, 2008
If every Illinois student who entered high school in 2004 had earned a diploma this yea, the state’s economy could have benefited from an additional $11 billion in the long run. That money would have come in the form of wager, taxes and productivity during these students’ lifetimes, according to a study released this money by the Alliance For Excellent Education, an organization that advocates for at-risk middle and high school students by promoting education funding and reform to ensure graduation. About 1.2 million students in the U.S. dropped out of the Class of 2008, states the study. The average annual income of a high school dropout in 2005 was about $10,000 less than a high school graduate’s according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The more students that graduate, the higher the earning potential, which leads to increased purchasing power and higher tax receipts, according to the alliance’s report, titled “The High Cost of High School Dropouts: What the Nation Pays for Inadequate High Schools.”

Juvenile Justice

House sets standards for juvenile boot camps
The Morning Call – June 25, 2008
The House approved national standards on juvenile boot camps and other and private programs intended to help troubled youth. Lawmakers acted Wednesday following reports of abuse and deaths involving young people with behavioral, emotional or mental problems. The legislation, which passed 318-103, would bar excessive “tough love” practices such as denying essential water, food, clothing, shelter or medical care. Physical restraint would be allowed only when the safety of the child or others is at issue. Also, children would have to have reasonable access to a telephone. The White House expressed opposition and the Senate has yet to consider the measure.

Foster Care

Ex-foster kids no longer alone
The Daily News – June 25, 2008
It was bad enough that Rene Howard had to hopscotch through eight foster homes in one year. What has worked out, however, is that Howard has joined a growing number of Los Angeles County foster children able to pursue lifelong dreams. Thanks to support from the Los Angeles County Education Coordinating Council, other advocates and coaches, Howard has won a conditional football scholarship next year to the University of Miami. On Wednesday, the council hosted its first Countywide Resource Fair in which an estimated 800 foster kids and probationers joined advocates and agencies downtown to help find landing a job or getting into college. “Howard is a success,” said Councilman Jose Huizar, chairman of the Education Coordinating Council, formed four years ago to help close the widening education gap of foster kids and young probationers. “These kids are talented and smart. We just have to develop their talents so they can reach their God-given potential.” Among the report’s recommendation: County departments should work together to offer foster children better mentoring, vocational, on-the-job and educational opportunities.

Disparities found in child welfare
Seattle Times - June 26, 2008
Whether children of color are overrepresented in the child-welfare system is a topic that’s long been discussed in certain circles. An extensive report released Wednesday answers the question of racial disproportionality definitively. The study, which was required by a 007 law, began by looking at 58,000 calls to state Child Protective Services (CPS) in 2004 that reported suspected abuse or neglect. The study group, which included experts and representatives from the community, then tracked those cases through the process to see whether children of color fared differently from white children. Were the calls accepted for investigation? Were children removed from the home? Did they remain in care for more than two years? Overall, the study indicated that African-American and Native American children are more likely than white children to enter the child-welfare system and to be removed from their homes for long periods. Asian-American children, on the other hand, were no more likely to be removed, and they were less likely to remain in long-term care than white children. Hispanic children fared somewhere in the middle, faring worse than whites but better than African and Native Americans. The study reveals that much of the disparity stems from the very beginning of the process – the initial complaint to CPS.

Waits Plague Transfers of Children to Relatives’ Care
The New York Times – June 27, 2008
Minimizing moves and placing children with a qualified parent or relative are bedrock principles of child welfare. But transferring custody between states, even if, as in this case, it is short drive across the District of Columbia line, requires a cumbersome legal procedure that lacks the urgency and appeals process accorded placements within a state, and it is under growing attack from specialists in children’s law and welfare. Each year, thousands of children taken from troubled homes are eventually placed with a parent or close relative in another state, often for eventual adoption. Most of the transfers take months and some take more than a year because of what experts say are outmoded rules. Such transfers are governed by the little-known Interstate Compact for the Placement of Children. The pact, adopted decades ago as law by every state, was designed to protect foster children from unsafe placements, but it is being challenged by many experts as inflicting unnecessary emotional harm on children, and for not requiring the court oversight that is normal in other custody cases.

This Week's News: Youth in Transition

2008-06-22T20:43:00.000-04:00

Education

Report Finds Little Gain From Vouchers
The Washington Post – June 17, 2008
Students in the D.C. school voucher program, the first federal initiative to spend taxpayer dollars on private school tuition, generally did not better on reading and math tests after two years than public school peers, a U.S. Education Department report said yesterday. The findings mirror those in previous studies of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, passed by a Republican-led Congress in 2004 to place the District at the leading edge of the private school choice movement. It has awarded scholarships to 1, 903 children from low-income families, granting up to $7,500 a year for tuition and other fees at participating schools. The congressional mandated study, conducted through the Institute of Education Sciences, the department’s research arm, compared the performance and attitudes of students who had scholarships with those of peers who sought scholarships but weren’t chosen in the lottery. This afternoon, a House Appropriations subcommittee will consider President Bush’s request for $18 million to continue the program.

Personal approach helps lower dropout rate
Hattiesburg American.com – June 22, 2008
The Petal School District saw a 10 percent decrease in high school dropouts from 2006 to 2007, and officials are pointing to personal meetings with parents with parents and students as the cause. The dropout rate in the Petal district was at 1u.7 percent in 2006 but dropped considerably to 7.3 percent in 2007. Jack Linton, the assistant superintendent for Petal schools, said the district took a much more serious approach to speaking with parents and students face to face and working out alternative plans to keep students in school. “We have to put a face with a name and that’s what makes a difference,” Linton said. He said a movement by multiple members in the district to meet personally with families has helped the dropout rate. “Out counselors and principals have been calling and getting parents and students to come in to talk about why they need to stay in school,” Linton said. “Sometimes they stay and sometimes they go with an alternative option.” “One of the things we’re doing is an exit interview where we meet with the parent and ask the student about six or seven questions about their experience in high school to find out what we can do better.”

Ore. Students set to get choice of graduation test
Associated Press – June 21, 2008
When Oregon education officials set out to devise a graduation testing requirement for high school students, they looked to other states for inspiration – on what not to do. “We didn’t think any one test should determine whether someone gets a diploma,” said Duncan Wyse, vice-chairman of the Oregon Board of Education. So board members chose a different route. This week, they approved a plan that lets students pick from three options: a national test, state assessment or a local version, such as a student portfolio, to show colleges and employers they have mastered reading, writing, applied math and speaking skills. Passage on any one of the three, along with fulfilling course requirements, would guarantee a diploma. The plan makes Oregon one of several states moving past the “one-size-fits-all” high-stakes testing that became commonplace in many U.S. high schools in the 1990s. In Pennsylvania, the Board of Education is considering a three-pronged approach similar to Oregon’s plan, while in Maryland, students who can’t pass the state tests could be allowed to do a senior project instead. But some say such choices allow some students – and states – to take the easy way out.

Juvenile Justice

Juveniles entitled to jury trials, Kansas court says
The Kansas City Star – June 21, 2008
In a decision affecting every juvenile criminal case in Kansas, the state Supreme Court has guaranteed juvenile defendants the right to trial before a jury. The court ruled Friday that young defendants should be afforded the protections of a jury because the distinctions between juvenile and adult justice have eroded over the past 20 years as lawmakers cracked down on juvenile crime. The decision sent a shock wave through the juvenile justice community. Prosecutors and judges said the likely results in more juries, longer trials and higher expenses. But Journey, a criminal defense attorney, said that ruling is justified. “You cannot impose adult penalties on little children without giving them adult due process,” he said. Previously in Kansas, it was up to judges to decide whether to grant a juvenile defendant’s request for a jury trial. Most states, including Missouri, do not offer the option in juvenile cases.

Juvenile justice conference slated for July
The Capital-Journal – June 22, 2008
Manhattan – The ninth annual Governor’s Conference on Juvenile Justice: Partners in Progress will be July 20-22 at the Capitol Plaza Hotel in Topeka. The conference, facilitated by Kansas State University, is designed for lawyers, caseworkers, parents, counselors, social workers or anyone interested in juvenile justice, crime reduction and crime prevention. It focuses on legal issues, facilities, prevention, mental health issues, community programs and services.

Foster Care

Schooling Issue a Complication for Foster Care
Education Week – June 9, 2008
Policymakers from Congress to the state and local levels are sharpening their focus on the educational needs of children in foster care, a population that can exceed 700,000 nationally in the course of a year and which has doubled in the past two decades. In many cases, their strategies coincide with recommendations outlined in a recent report on California’s massive foster-care system: access to preschool for foster children, specialized training for teachers, and making sure child-welfare agencies have educational liaisons. “A focus on school readiness and school success may not heal all the damage already inflicted early in the lives of foster children, but it can give these children – and many of their peers – the fighting chance they need and deserve to thrive as adults,” says the report, released last month by the Center for Future of Teaching and Learning in Santa Cruz, Calif., and Mental Health Advocacy Services Inc.

This Week's News: Youth in Transition

2008-06-16T16:07:00.000-04:00

Education

Oregon’s small-school experiment slow to see results
The Oregonian – June 8, 2008
Oregon’s highly touted small high schools are graduating their first class of students who spent all four years in intimate academies intended to revolutionize the big American high school. Armed with $25 million from billionaire Bill Gates and other education reformers, backer of small schools heralded the academies as the best way to curb high dropout rates, forge connections to keep teenagers on track and prepare every graduate for college. Four years into that effort, however, Oregon’s small schools have yet to deliver those promises. Instead, their statistics look a lot like result from lumbering, impersonal high schools they are supposed to replace. Lots of students quit, and most of the graduates aren’t ready for the rigors of college. Oregon’s small-schools initiative was launched in 2004 with grants from the Bill and Meyer Memorial Trust. Nationally, the Gates Foundation has donated more than $1 billion to create and support small academies.

Charter Schools’ Big Experiment
The Washington Post – June 9, 2008
The storm that swamped this city three years ago also effectively swept away a public school system with a dismal record and faint prospects of getting better. Before Hurricane Katrina, educator John Alford said, he toured schools and found “kids just watching movies” in classes where “low expectations were the norm.” Now Alford is one of many new principals leading an unparalleled education experiment, with possible lessons for troubled urban schools in the District and elsewhere. New Orleans, in a post-Katrina flash, has become the first major city in which more than half of all school students attend charter schools. For these new schools with taxpayer funding and independent management, old rules and habits are out. No more standard hours, seniority, union contracts, shared curriculum or common textbooks. In are a crowd of newcomers – critics call them opportunists – seeking to life standards and achievement. They compete for space, steal each other’s top teachers and wonder how it is all going to work.

2 New Coalitions Seek Influence on Campaigns
Education Week – June 10, 2008
Should schools be held primarily responsible for improving student achievement, or do they need help from health and social programs to ensure their students’ success? Two sets of prominent educators and policy leaders released statements last week emphasizing different answers to that question. But both groups acted with the same purpose: to inform and highlight the debate over education in the 2008 presidential campaign and to influence the future of the No Child Left Behind Act and other policies of the next president. The Education Equality Project, formally launched last week by New York City Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein and the Rev. Al Sharpton, the civil rights activist, plans to organize events at the Democratic and Republican national conventions to promote its message that “public education today remains mired in the status quo” and “shows little prospect of meaningful improvement” without significant changes in the ways schools are structured, its statement said.

Juvenile Justice

Dakota County re-examines who belongs in juvenile lockup
TwinCities.com – June 7, 2008
When kids commit petty crimes, maybe “juvenile jail” isn’t always the best fit. Hoping to open up bed space and avoid costly building additions, dozens of corrections agencies are studying options like placing low-risk offenders in shelters or foster care or back at home under the supervision of a probation officer or an electronic monitoring bracelet. They’re re-examining their “risk assessment” tools, trying to ferret out the otherwise harmless children who slipped up by swiping candy from a store or spray-painting a sidewalk from violent offenders who pose a danger to public safety. For those on the front lines of law enforcement, the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative represents a sea change in thinking. Across the country, the Baltimore-based foundation has worked with corrections staff to create four “model” alternative detention programs in Santa Cruz, Calif.; Portland, Ore.; Albuquerque, N.M.; and Chicago, some of which have been in place for 12 years or more, with high success rates. Dakota County hopes to join that list. In May, the county unveiled its own version of the multipronged JDAI.

ACLU sues state juvenile prison system
Houston Chronicle – June 12, 2008
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against the Texas Youth Commission on Thursday, accusing it of subjecting its female offenders to unwarranted solitary confinement, routine strip searches and brutal physical force. According to the brief, incarcerated girls are “frequently subjected to punitive solitary confinement in oppressively cold, concrete and cinderblock cells.” The ACLU filed its class-action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of the Western District of Texas on behalf of five girls currently incarcerated at the Ron Jackson State Juvenile facility in Brownwood.

Foster Care

As Teenagers Leave Group Homes, a Challenge Placing Those Who Remain
The New York Times – June 8, 2008
Eight months into New York City’s bold experiment of moving hundreds of troubled teenagers out of group homes and into foster care, the system is stretched so thin that many involved say they are having trouble making thoughtful matches between foster parents and their charges. Some child-welfare experts are worried they may soon be unable to recruit enough qualified foster parents, while others say the city has moved too slowly in putting support systems in place to help these older children flourish in private homes. New York – which has long had a higher proportion of teenagers institutional settings than other large cities, according to John B. Mattingly, commissioner of the Administration for Children’s Services – is among several places nationwide prioritizing a push toward private homes. National studies show that in general, children in private homes have fewer problems as adults than those in group homes.

This Week's News: Youth in Transition

2008-06-09T15:02:00.001-04:00

Education

Public support key to success
The Leaf Chronicle – June 6, 2008
High school graduation drives public education across the nation, and Clarksville-Montgomery County is no different. A new initiative, 100% Graduation Is Clarksville’s Business, is a collective community approach to encourage and support students to stay in school and receive their diplomas. The federal No Child Left Behind law requires school districts to achieve 100 percent high school graduation by the 2013-14 school year. The 100% Graduation Is Clarksville’s Business initiative is another tool to widen the graduation emphasis into the workplace and the home. “This project is about making people aware of the importance of education and understanding the role each of us plays in making Clarksville a better community. Too often we forget that we have a number of resources we under-utilize.” The local school district has several support programs in place to help students experience academic success and graduate. The first set of programs are the Transition programs – Bridges and Pathways. Bridges is designed for students transitioning from middle school to high school, and Pathways is designed for students transitioning from elementary to middle school. Additional programs include READ 180 and Language!, reading intervention programs for middle school and high school students not reading on grade level. Credit Recovery and Grade Recovery programs allow students to recover credits failed during the school year, rather than waiting for summer school.

Group helps thousands graduate
News 14 Carolina – June 6, 2008
Charlotte – As thousands of high school students prepare for graduation, some of them may not have made it if it wasn’t for one local organization. Right Moves for Youth has been helping students stay in school and on task for years. Last year, 12 students from Myers Park High School graduated from the program, earned a diploma and all went on to a four-year college. The program helps motivate students, encouraging them to stay in school and one day earn a high school diploma. Right Moves for Youth says 82 percent of its students graduate high school and go on to post-secondary institutions.

Education Week reports grim news on high school graduation rates
The Plain Dealer – June 5, 2008
It’s likely that most of the estimated 1.2 million students nationwide who will not graduate with their peers this spring will never get a diploma. While experts agree that post-secondary training is crucial in the modern job market, almost 30 percent of the class of 2008 will not graduate, according to a report released Wednesday by the trade publication Education Week. The report, called “Diplomas Count,” found that nationwide, just 71 percent of ninth-graders made it to graduation four years later. By some estimates, the problem will cost the nation more than $300 billion in lost wages, taxes and productivity over the course of a lifetime. The news was worse for minority students. Data shows that only 55 percent of black students graduate from high school in four years, and only 58 percent of Latino students.

Juvenile Justice

Young parolees given basic rights
Mercury News – June 5, 2008
A significant legal settlement announced Wednesday grants thousands of juvenile parolees fundamental due process rights for the first time in California history. Under the agreement reached in a Sacramento federal court between youth advocates and state officials, offenders who violate parole will soon be afforded basic constitutional rights granted to adult parolees. In hearings to decide whether they should be locked up again, juvenile parolees will be granted legal counsel, the opportunity to present evidence and witnesses, and protection from lengthy pre-hearing detention and the arbitrary lengthening of sentences. Changes under the settlement seem basic for most courts of law but will be novel in the juvenile parole system. Defendants will have the right to a well-defined route of appeal. There will be strict rules on pre-hearing detention and on the time parole board members can add to sentences, with a maximum of one year. Violators will no longer automatically be shackled during hearings, and the parole board must now consider alternatives to incarceration, such as community treatment programs.

Foster Care

Successful plan needs mentors
Knoxnews.com – June 7, 2008
Last year, Gov. Phil Bredesen called for 250 volunteers to mentor older foster children in the state’s child welfare system. Many of these teenagers have spent years in the system and will face leaving custody without being adopted or reunited with their birth families. Studies show that support, guidance and one-on-one attention from mentors increase the chances that at-risk teens will make successful transitions to the adult world. In its first year, the initiative – a program of the Governor’s Children’s Cabinet operated by Youth Villages in a partnership with the Department of Children’s Services – has exceeded all expectations. Across the state, 300 mentors have been paired with foster children exceeding the initial goal by 20 percent. Even with this significant progress, Bredesen and DCS Commissioner Viola Miller need help to care for the thousands of children who remain in state custody.

Children Grow Up Healthier in Enriched Foster Care
NPR – June 6, 2008
There are big, long-term health payoffs in mental and physical well-being when foster-care services to children are enhanced, a new study suggests. A new study, published in the latest edition of the Archives of General Psychiatry, looked at whether more enriched and supportive foster care can help mitigate some of the long-term problems foster kids face. The social and economic backgrounds of the two groups were similar, but one group had been placed in the states’ public foster-care systems. The other group had been put in a private foster-care program – which had more services for children and their foster parents. The extra services included mental health screening, tutoring, summer camps and job training for kids, as well as increased financial assistance and parenting training for foster parents. Of the 479 people who took part in the study, he found that those who had been given the enhanced foster care had dramatically few medical problems, such as heart disease, hypertension, ulcers and diabetes. They also had much lower rates of depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and substance abuse.

This Week's News: Youth in Transition

2008-05-31T16:14:00.001-04:00

Education

Study echoes MPS, voucher findings
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – May 26, 2008
A second round of results comparing high school graduation figures for Milwaukee Public Schools and a group of private schools in the city’s publicly funded voucher program has reached the same conclusion as a report issued in January: Students who attend voucher schools are more likely to graduate than those who attend MPS. The second report, issued today, adds data for the class of 2007 to its figures. The report was funded by and released by School Choice Wisconsin, the main organization for advocacy for Milwaukee’s voucher program, which is the oldest and largest of its kind in the United State. About 19,000 students attended about 120 private schools in the city this year, with public funds of up to $6,401 per student going to the schools. Warren’s figures for 2007 showed a bigger gap in graduation rates between the voucher school and MPS than any of the prior four years. He concluded that the number of 2007 voucher graduates was 85% of the number of incoming voucher freshman who started in the fall of 2003, while for MPS the figure was 58%.

Three of 10 students who start high school in Florida won’t finish
Orlando Sentinel – May 27, 2008
By even the most optimistic count, three out of 10 students who started high school to earn a diploma won’t cross the state. They were held back, dropped out or just can’t meet the requirements for graduation. According to state figures, 72.4 percent of students who enrolled in ninth grade managed to graduate last spring, which means more than 37,000 students didn’t make it. About the same rate is expected this year. In Central Florida, an Orlando Sentinel database charting the performance of 50 high schools by 20 measures show graduation rates last year differed wildly among schools, ranging from a low of about 51 percent at Evans High in Orange County to more than 98 percent at Professional and Technical High School in Osceola. Though many Central Florida high schools are short on graduates, the Sentinel database points to some bright spots, especially among technical and magnet schools that offer programs tailored to students’ special interests.

Helping parents stay in school
The Mercury News – May 26, 2008
Riquisha, a 12th grader, has a little boy named Manny. Julian Logoai, also a 12th grader, has a son named Samatua, Karen Garcia has a little guy named Kevin, and J.D. Tacson, one of the boys in the group, has a son named Jaylin. All are participants in the Cal-SAFE (short for California School And Family Education) program at Island High School, which has been helping teen parents for 31 years. The new mothers and fathers receive the education and support they need-including on site child care – to help them graduate from high school, raise healthy children and embark on successful careers. The program includes academic, parenting, nutritional and prenatal education, including guest speaker on topics ranging from the merits of breastfeeding to the dangers of lead paint. Cal-SAFE also provides meal supplements for pregnant and lactating mothers, transportation to doctors’ appointments and job interviews and child care and development assessments. In addition, volunteer visiting “grandparents” visit the school to play, read and socialize with the babies.

Juvenile Justice

Transforming juvenile justice
Indy Star – May 27, 2008
Far fewer youths file into Marion County’s juvenile lockup each day, a key result of a reform effort that has reduced crowding and diverted thousands of children into programs outside the center’s walls. But architects of the overhaul of the juvenile justice system see the changes as only a starting point. In the third year of a program fueled by a national advocacy group, officials are aiming at ending racial disparities in punishment and transforming a system that many see as perpetuating delinquency rather than healing it. The Annie E. Casey Foundation selected Indianapolis as a new site for its three-year Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiate in 2005. The program began two years ago, just as crowding and unsafe condition inside the center brought heave outside scrutiny. In Indianapolis, early data show stark changes taking hold without a surge in juvenile crime. In 2004, the detention center held 171 detainees on an average day, far more than the 144 beds could accommodate. Earlier this year, the same measure was below 100. Officials have closed units to reduce capacity to 112. Detention admissions have fallen by more than half, to 2,214 last year.

“Young and in Trouble”
Press-Telegram – May 17, 2008
A multimedia presentation addressing juvenile crime in Long Beach, California and the most common offenses that gets youths into trouble. Crimes committed by juveniles have been declining for the past 10 years, but not in Long Beach, where 13 children are arrested or cited every day, and more than 4,000 every year.

Foster Care

Study of ’94 Adoption Law Finds Little Benefit to Blacks
Washington Post – May 27, 2008
A 1994 federal law that paved the way for more white adults to adopt black children has left many parents ill-equipped for the situation and has not achieved the goals of giving black children an equal chance of being adopted and recruiting more black adoptive parents, a study concludes. The study, being released today, found that the Multiethnic Placement Act (MEPA) did succeed in increasing the rate of black adoption, but only by a small margin, and that black children still disproportionately end up in temporary foster homes. Because the law forbids discussion of race during the adoption process, it prevents social workers from preparing white parents for the challenge of raising black children in a largely white environment, said the report, titled “Finding Families for African American Children: The Role of Race and Law in Adoption From Foster Care.” It cited studies showing that dark-complexioned children in white homes tend to struggle with identity issues related to skin color, self-esteem and discrimination that their new parents are often not equipped to handle.

This Week's News: Youth in Transition

2008-05-26T17:26:00.000-04:00

Education

College Immaterial for High School Students in Vocational Training
Houston Press – May 15, 2008
Next fall, thanks to a $200,000 industry grant, Charles Milby High will open the country’s first Academy for Petroleum Exploration and Production Technology. Milby’s student body is 99 percent black and Hispanic and 79 percent poor. Last year, a Johns Hopkins University study dubbed it a “dropout factory” where more than 40 percent of freshmen don’t make it to their senior year. The new petroleum academy, which will teach students about lucrative careers in an industry clamoring for technical workers, could prove a powerful incentive for kids to stay in school. In Texas, the high-school dropout rate for African Americans and Hispanics ranges as high as 50 percent. Research show that a mix of career and technical education classes and academic courses lowers the dropout rate. A 1998 University of Michigan study found that high-risk students were eight to ten times less likely to drop out in 11th and 12th grades if they enroll in a career and technical education program instead of a general program.

Career Education Urged to Lower Dropout Rate
Education Week – May 20, 2008
In cooperation with the Washington-based Council of Chief State School Officers, the Southern Regional Education Board, in Atlanta, issued a report last week calling for states and schools to increase substantially the quality of their career and technical education. The report notes that the latest reauthorization of the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act requires that schools and two-year colleges accepting Perkins money must, for the first time, integrate rigorous academic and career and technical instruction, and link secondary and postsecondary education. It cites a recent study by the National Research Center for Career and Technical Education showing that high school students at all levels of achievement were less likely to drop out if they took a combination of academic and career or technical courses. The report encourages states to provide incentives for districts and high schools to work together with two-year colleges, technology centers, and employers to craft occupation-specific courses.

Target demographic: Pasco teens talk to peers about high school dropout rates
Tri City Herald – May 25, 2008
Mayra Rivera thought about dropping out of high school. The 17-year-old has faced “a lot of obstacles” in getting her education, including having a baby four months ago, she said. But she stuck with school and now wants to help other teens make the same choice. That’s why Rivera and some classmates at New Horizons High School in Pasco have created posters, TV and radio spots and T-shirts aimed at curbing dropout rates and reaching students with the message their destination should be graduation. The students became involved after the Pasco School District received a $270,000 state grant earlier this year to improve on-time graduation rates and work on dropout prevention with Columbia Basin College, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Benton and Franklin Counties and other community partners. The goals of the grant include lowering dropout rates among students who are particularly at-risk – such as freshman and those in special education, juvenile justice and foster care – and bring dropouts back to school.

Juvenile Justice

Juvenile courts can confuse kids, parents, report says
Ventura County Star – May 20, 2008
Two years in the making, a report on California’s juvenile courts warn that children and parents are often bewildered by what happens in the courtrooms, and judges and attorneys don’t always have access to all the information they need to make decisions. The California Judicial Council’s stem-to-stern inspection is the first full-scale examination of court procedures and effectiveness. Many courts are failing in their basic responsibility to make sure children and parents know what is happening to them, according to the report, which was released in April. Fifty-eight recommendations emerged in the study, some of them based on simple but new concepts. “Up in Sacramento, they hand out restaurant-style beepers to preserve anonymity as kids wait for their cases to come up in court,” Back said. “There are some practical suggestions on the list, like using looping videos in courthouse waiting areas to explain to people just exactly what is going on inside the courtroom,” Back said. Such tapes are already available in Ventura County, in English and Spanish.

Foster Care

Adoption Outreach: Goal is to get more black kids placed
Omaha World-Herald – May 18, 2008
The pressing need for permanent homes for black children is nothing new in a country where more than a half-million children – a third of them black – are in state foster care systems at any given time. One 2007 federal government study indicated that black children were more than twice as likely as their white peers to wind up in foster care. And, on average, they remained in foster care nine months longer. The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, working with court officials and private agencies, is ramping up efforts to streamline the adoption of foster-care children and better tell their stories on Internet listings. The African-American Empowerment Network, a 20-month-old Omaha coalition that advocates self-help solutions to societal problems, and Sigma Treatment Foster Care of Omaha, the state’s only black-owned foster agency, promote adoption. Iowa also is aiming to reduce its own disproportionate rate of black children in state care with an effort called parent partners. African-American parents who regained their children from foster care are serving as coaches for other parents trying to get their children back.

Foster care can pose more options than adoption
Battle Creek Enquirer – May 18, 2008
Although the state tries to place foster children in the care of relatives, there is a stark difference in financial support and regulatory standards between kinship, or relative, care providers and licensed foster care providers. A recent evaluation of the Michigan Department of Human Services by John Goad, titled “Michigan Department of Human Services: An evaluation of the capacity to assure the safety of foster children,” states thousands of foster children placed in the care of relatives by MDHS are treated as “second class citizens” compared to those in licensed foster care homes and receive far less protection than children placed with licensed care providers. In addition to failing to provide adequate financial support to unlicensed relative care providers, the report stated MDHS allows placement of foster children with relatives known to be dangerous, with relatives about whom little or nothing is known and fails to provide “even the inadequate safeguards the agency provides children in licensed foster homes.”

This Week's News: Youth in Transition

2008-05-18T23:17:00.000-04:00

Education

New online school targets Latinos
Salt Lake Tribune – May 18, 2008
BOISE, Idaho – The state’s newest virtual charter school is expected to go online this fall, buy only after a strategic campaign to recruit Hispanics and teenagers at risk of quitting or getting kicked out of public high schools. The nonprofit online charter school is part of Insight Schools, a Portland-based company that operates one of the largest networks of virtual high schools in the country. With school in Oregon, California, Washington and Wisconsin, Insight plans to open more this fall in Idaho, Minnesota and Kansas. If the Idaho school opens in September as scheduled, Green wants to maintain a Latino student population of at least 20 percent. As part of their recruiting strategy, administrator bought ads on Spanish radio stations, advertised classes with bilingual brochures and drafted Latino community leaders to serve on its board of directors. In Idaho, more than 2,100 high school students dropped out last year. Of those, 468 claim Latino heritage, according to the state Department of Education.

New schools for poor?
Rocky Mountain News – May 12, 2008
Some prominent Denver foundations are working on a plan that could create new schools for thousands of poor children in Colorado in the next few years. The loose-knit group, called the New Schools Collaborative, includes the Piton Foundation, the Donnell-Kay Foundation and the Daniels Fund, names known for their work in urban education. The idea is to pool money and knowledge to help jump-start the creation or replication of schools that have proved successful with students from low-income families. That includes expanding homegrown models such as West Denver Preparatory Charter School on South Boulevard, which Head of School Chris Gibbons wants to grow from a single school to three by 2015. It also includes importing to Denver successful models such as Envision Schools of California. Goals of the New Schools Collaborative have hit as high as enrolling 40,000 students in as many as 10 new schools a year for the next 10 years.

Dropout Dilemma: Parkway Spends Big to Keep Kids Coming to School
KSDK.com - May 16, 2008
Parkway’s Fern Ridge High School is a public school with a proven track record of reaching out to students “at risk” of quitting school. When it comes to class size Fern Ridge has an eight to one student-teacher ratio. “So here you can sit down with the teacher and explain what you need help with, and they help you, instead of just giving you the quick answer for your question,” Parker explained. And, there are fewer than 100 students in the entire school. Compare that to the traditional high school and the district’s average high school class size of 23 students per class. Since its creation, in 1992, Fern Ridge’s principal says his school has served as a district-wide, “safety net” for students “at risk” of dropping out. “We’re nearing close to 500 graduates over that period now, that would have been potential drop outs before,” touts Principal Desi Kirchhofer. The most important piece? Personal relationships. Staff members work hard to show they care about each student. Fern Ridge’s success is not without cost. Over $15,000 are spent on each student at the school. Compare that to the Parkway district’s average $9,500 expenditure per-pupil. Still, the district’s dropout rate is 1.7 percent, where Missouri’s, state-wide is 4.2 percent.

Juvenile Justice

Leaving Hard Time Behind
The Chronicle of Philanthropy
When Emily Tow Jackson first started talking to leaders of local youth organization in the late 1990s about supporting their efforts to improve the Connecticut juvenile-justice system, many were skeptical that a grant maker wanted to get involved. But over the past eight years, the Tow Foundation and its grantees have won a string of victories in their efforts to persuade the state that sending kids to prison is not necessarily the best way to reduce crime. Those successes are part of a growing effort by grant makers to find new ways to help young people who get in trouble with the law. In recent years, a handful of local and national grant makers, including the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the JEHT Foundation, the Open Society Institute, and the Eckerd Family Foundation, have produced research and financed model efforts that emphasize rehabilitation, rather than harsh punishment. Other grant makers are taking note. The number of foundation that receive information on juvenile-justice issues through the Youth Transition Funders Group, a network of grant makers focused on youth issues, has grown to 37, three times as many as in 2003.

New law lets courts blend juvenile, adult jail sentences
Sun Journal - May 14, 2008
Due to special circumstances in Armstrong’s case, he could be given a mixed juvenile-adult sentence. His pleas on unrelated burglary charges enable authorities to send him to juvenile detention, while charging him as an adult for the more serious crime. But if that had not been the situation, prosecutors would have had to choose between trying Armstrong as an adult and sending him to an adult prison, or trying him in juvenile court where the maximum penalty is incarceration until age 21. The bill Gov. John Baldacci ceremonially signed Tuesday allows a more general application of blended sentences in which prison time can be split between a juvenile and adult facility. The bill allows prosecutors, in the most egregious cases, to charge juveniles as an adult. “The juvenile will serve the initial portion of their sentence in a juvenile facility and then they will finish the remainder of their sentence in an adult facility,” Baldacci said.

Foster Care

Study: Big gaps in foster vs. traditional homes
USA Today – May 18, 2008
Children in foster care live in poorer, more crowded and less educated homes than kids in other families, often taking them from one disadvantaged environment into another, new research shows. The Annie E. Casey Foundation study is the first analyze 2006 Census Bureau date, the most recent available, for a detailed look at foster parents. “The gaps were so pervasive,” says demographer William O’Hare. O’Hare finds foster households have a lower average income,
$56, 364, than do all households with children, $74,301, even though they care for more kids. Half of foster households have three or more children compared with 21% of all other households with that many. The study also finds foster parents are more likely than others to be unemployed and lack a high school diploma.

This Week's News: Youth in Transition

2008-05-12T17:14:00.000-04:00

Education

High dropout rates Alabama’s biggest economic problem, study finds
The Birmingham News – April 30, 2008
Alabama’s high school dropout rate is the biggest threat to the state’s long-term economic growth and a large reason why people here earn less than the average American, a nonprofit education advocacy group states in a report being released today. The Southern Education Foundation, based in Atlanta, commissioned a study that concluded almost 60 percent of the state’s income gap with the rest of the nation can be blamed on Alabama’s lower levels of education. “Something has to be done about that extraordinary dropout rate, or the consequences are going to be far more severe in Alabama’s income and economy than they ever have been,” said Steve Suitts, the foundation’s vice president. The study found that if Alabama’s education levels were equal to the national average, 59 percent of the gap between Alabama’s per capita income and the national average could be closed. “It really quantifies what I think is common sense for most people, and that is that in an increasingly global society, where the rewards of education decided whether someone is going to get a decent job, that education matters a great deal more than it used to,” Suitts said.

Will raising age limit lower dropout rates?
Star Tribune – May 3, 2008
Should Minnesota follow the lead of many other states and raise the high school dropout age from 16 to 18? Minnesota legislators hope to solidify just such a proposal in the next few days. The intent is to force at least some of the state’s thousands of high school dropouts every year to state in school. Though there’s little evidence nationwide that raising the dropout age improves graduation rates, proponents want to drive the point home that it’s bad to leave school at 16 or 17. There appears to be no direct correlation between a higher mandatory attendance age and graduation rates. Data from 2004 and 2005 that 16 of 28 states that, at the time, had a dropout age of 16 had graduation rates above the national average of 75 percent. Even proponents of raising the dropout age concede more needs to be done to make sure the kids staying in school can find a reason for being there.

Juvenile Justice

Del. aims to reduce juvenile recidivism
The Daily Times – May 11, 2008
Juvenile offenders who are locked up in Delaware are more likely than not to wind up being arrested again, either as youth or adults, according to the latest state study of recidivism rates. The study shows that 78 percent of offenders released from juvenile justice centers in fiscal 2006 were re-arrested within a year. Fourty-four percent of released offenders were re-arrested for felonies, while 28 percent were re-arrested on misdemeanor charges and 5 percent for violating probation. To find ways to improve the juvenile justice system, including reducing recidivism, officials recently hired a consultant to conduct an assessment. Shay Bilchik director of The Center for Juvenile Justice Reform at Georgetown University, began his review in March. He is expected to have a preliminary report by the end of June.

Foster Care

A Foster Child Comes of Age
The Washington Post – May 8, 2008
A recent study by the Pew Charitable Trust found that an increasing number of young people are “aging out” of foster care, even as research shows that many are ill-prepared for life after they system. Many have not finished high school or college and have limited employment and job skills. A 2005 study by researchers at the University of Chicago found they have higher rates or homelessness and incarceration than their peers. Virginia and other states are starting to address these problems, with some allowing children to stay in foster care longer, offering transitional housing and providing financial assistance so that they can pursue higher education. The University of Chicago researchers found that young people coming out of foster care often are more isolated socially than peers and are more likely to suffer from mental health issues.

State foster care could get boost
Detroit Free Press – May 8, 2008
Michigan’s strained foster care system might get some support from the private sector under a plan soon to be introduced in the state Legislature. The bills outlined Tuesday by two Republican lawmakers would create a state foster care advisory board to propose improvements and help educate people about how they can help support the support. The panel also would help foster children who are getting older and soon will be on their own to transition out of the system. The plan would create a trust fund that would be supported by charitable donations, including a checkoff option on state income tax forms. Department of Human Services spokeswoman Maureen Sorbet said Tuesday that lawmakers shared the concept with department representatives last week and they are willing to look at the proposal. Last month, the Department of Human Services announced a task force of more than 60 members aimed at improving Michigan child welfare systems including protective services, adoption, juvenile justice and foster care.

This Week's News: Youth in Transition

2008-05-05T23:19:00.001-04:00

Education

Special Schools for Pregnant Girls?
The Christian Science Monitor - April 30, 2008
Soon after getting pregnant, high school sophomore Alicia Mattocks worried that bullies might purposely slam her into a locker and that a teacher’s rules wouldn’t allow frequent bathroom runs. But it was the thought of not having to go to school quite so early, when she felt her worst, that pushed her to transfer to the Marian Pritchett School, and alternative public school in Boise for pregnant and parenting students. That decision, she says, saved her from dropping out. Pritchett school, however, faces a funding shortfall because state grants that fund it have dried up. Separate schools for pregnant teens have dwindled in recent years because of concern for educational equality, budget constraints, and changing social mores. But with one-third of all girls who drop out citing motherhood as a reason for leaving, these specialty schools from a bygone era may yet hold some lessons about how to keep kids in school. “The support for these specialized programs is critical in that they provide models of possibility in what can be done in school systems,” says Wendy Luttrell, a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. The school offers day care and a baby-supply store. Mothers can nurse their babies at the back of classrooms. The school’s size – just 45 students – allows the girls to get a lot of attention. Classes start after 9am and extracurricular activities are focused on skills such as business, parenting, and family law.

High school students unprepared for college
The Daily Collegian – May 5, 2008
As the world continues to evolve and entry-level positions and opportunities for career advancement in the job market become more competitive, a college education and related training will carry more weight than ever for students. But according to a statewide study released this month, Massachusetts high school graduates are starting the race a step behind. The study and subsequent reports highlight concerns that the state’s public schools aren’t doing enough to prepare all their students for college course work. Consequently, because of the student’s lack of basic skills in such subjects as English and math, they’re forced to take remedial classes, which don’t count towards a degree and have higher numbers of drop-outs. The report was conduct jointly by the state Departments of Elementary and Secondary and Higher Education. They found that the problem isn’t centered in any one particular area and it crosses socioeconomic lines.

Juvenile Justice

State rethinks seven deadly sins law
The Florida Times-Union – May 3, 2008
Set to land in legislator’s hands in 2009, a proposed rewrite of the state’s juvenile code would regress from get-tough statutes that automatically send to adult criminal courts cases involving youths 13 and older who are accused of the most heinous crimes. Instead, juvenile court judges would decide which cases are fit for superior court. “By and large, most juvenile [charged as adults] are kids who are exercising very poor judgment, but they can be rehabilitated,” said Sharon Hill, a retired Fulton County juvenile court judge. She serves as executive director of Georgia Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, a nonprofit public interest law center that is a partner in the code rewrite project. But several prosecutors call the proposed policy shift a mistake, and say juvenile courts are not equipped to hand out sentences matching the severity of today’s violent youth offenders.

Gov taps juvenile justice guru
Trib.com – May 2, 2008
Gov. Dave Freudenthal announced Thursday that retiring District Judge Gary P. Hartman of Worland will join the governor’s office as a special adviser on juvenile justice issues. Hartman, who has served as judge in Wyoming’s 5th Judicial District since 1983, will be charged with evaluating Wyoming’s juvenile justice system and working with the departments of Health, Corrections, Family Services and Education to formulate new policies, the governor’s office said. Hartman said an important part of his new job will be helping the state achieve compliance with the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act. The governor’s office said Hartman will also take a lead in developing community juvenile service boards, a measure approved this year by the Wyoming Legislature.

Foster Care

Kentucky Program Puts Youth on the Right Track
The New York Times – May 4, 2008
Boys’ Haven, a nonprofit home for neglected and abused youth in Louisville area, races thoroughbreds as a part of an equine job-training program that is not even a year old. Finding gainful employment for young men and women who are aging out of foster care is the stated goal, but on this day, and for this 1 minute 14 seconds, all anyone cared about was winning. “We think of the racing as a motivational factor for the kids to hang in there and went to stay with the program,” said Verson C. Rickert Jr., the executive director of Boys’ Haven, which has been serving girls as well for several years. Still, job training is the main emphasis, Rickert said, “We think it’s a great fit for the kinds of kids we have here who often have a lot of barriers and restraints for getting on in other kinds of work.”