Monday, February 27, 2006

This Week's News: 27 Feb 2006

Juvenile Justice

Experts focus on teen criminal minds
The Times (Trenton, NJ) - Feb 18, 2006 By CHRIS STURGIS
TRENTON -- Four boys, all age 14, were having a sleepover. About 2 a.m., they decided to sneak from the house and visit a girl one of them liked. To wake her from her sleep, they tossed pebbles at her bedroom window.

MacArthur Foundation Selects Regents To Administer Juvenile ...
PoliticsLA.com, LA - 6 hours ago
... John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation as the lead agency for the administration of a five-year, $7.5 million juvenile justice reform initiative grant. ...

Juvenile Justice
Sun-Sentinel.com, FL - Feb 22, 2006
... The Florida Department of Juvenile Justice's own figures show boot camps produced higher recidivism rates than more conventional detention programs. ...

Judges recommend that state sever Juvenile Justice Services from ...
Kingsport Times News, TN - 22 hours ago
... with Department of Children's Services Commissioner Viola P. Miller, they are now recommending that Juvenile Justice Services be separated from DCS. ...

Juvenile justice issue in prosecutor's campaign
Aurora Beacon News, IL - Feb 20, 2006
... counties, Kendall County state's attorney candidate Boyd Ingemunson expounded on his "challenge-the-status-quo" campaign theme by focusing on juvenile justice. ...

Officials want separate budget for Juvenile Justice Division
Nashville City Paper, TN - Feb 19, 2006
In their attempt to strengthen Tennessee’s juvenile justice system, legislators and juvenile judges are discussing the possibility to create a separate ...

Assessment looks at when to jail juveniles
Nashville City Paper, TN - February 21, 2006
Tennessee is currently grappling with the question of when juvenile judges should lock up a delinquent youth and when should that kid be released back into the community.



Education

High School Graduation Rates Unacceptably Low, State Says
The New York Times – Feb 14, 2006 (subscription required)
More than a third of high school students in the state scheduled to graduate last June failed to do so, State Education Commissioner Richard P. Mills said yesterday, calling the figure "unacceptable."

Dropping out could get harder
Palladium-Item, IN - Feb 21, 2006
... “I don’t see it (drop outs) as a major issue at this school,” first-year Centerville High School principal Tamara Chavis said. ...

Stopping dropouts: Will it work, some ask
The Courier-Journal, IN - 4 hours ago
... school as long as possible, but the current high school configuration is ... "I tried alternative school and it ... I know people say drop-outs will never make it, but ...

Keeping Kids in School
The Gotham Gazette – Feb 13, 2006
Najsha Chacon felt discouraged by her class work at crowded Fort Hamilton High School in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. She began missing more and more of her classes, until there seemed to be little chance she could graduate. So she dropped out.


Foster Care

The system's 'alumni' urge the state to do more to help others ...
Houston Chronicle, United States - 20 hours ago
... Child Protective Services' newest foster care transition program, serving as many as 150 young adult alumni of foster care. "I guess a lot of youth in the ...

The value of family ties
San Francisco Chronicle, USA - Feb 21, 2006
... Once this is established, foster youth can successfully exit the system and go on leading a normal life with their new families. ...

Monday, February 20, 2006

This Week's News: 20 Feb 2006

Education

High School Graduation Rates Unacceptably Low, State Says
Saturday, February 18, 2006 4:52:00 PM
All news from "New York Times" High School Graduation Rates Unacceptably Low, State Says

Stopping more dropouts
Fort Wayne News Sentinel, IN - Feb 15, 2006
... offering alternatives, if those administrators can track down casual drop-outs. ... a head start on college or vocational school while finishing high school. ...

Poll: Most back tough high school curriculum
Lansing State Journal, MI - Feb 13, 2006
... not only support the state's push for tougher high school graduation requirements ... consequences of stronger rules - added costs, more drop-outs - are worth ...


Foster Care

'A role for all of us'
Times-Standard, CA - Feb 19, 2006
... Allan Bard is a former foster youth trying to educate the public about what it's like. ... He said he's unusual among foster youth in that he has a family. ...

Foster teens create center to help transition to adulthood
San Jose Mercury News, USA - Feb 18, 2006
... The possibilities are frightening. National surveys indicate up to one-fourth of foster youth who leave care at age 18 are homeless within a year. ...

Out of the foster-care lifeboat
San Francisco Chronicle, USA – Feb 14, 2006
... The committee is holding the second in a series of hearings Wednesday; it will target new approaches to assisting relatives who provide care for foster youth.

Helping foster kids navigate adulthood
Seattle Times, United States - Feb 13, 2006
They can pass the Foster Youth Achievement Act, which would authorize a continuation of foster care and some support services for young people who have reached ...


Juvenile Justice

Team Evaluating Juvenile Justice Center
WISH, IN - Feb 14, 2006
A team of national juvenile justice experts is evaluating the Marion County Juvenile Justice Detention Center this week. The four ...

Officials want separate budget for Juvenile Justice Division
Nashville City Paper, TN - 7 hours ago
In their attempt to strengthen Tennessee’s juvenile justice system, legislators and juvenile judges are discussing the possibility to create a separate ...

An advocate for juvenile justice
Bay News 9 - Saturday, February 18, 2006
People across the state are talking about a videotape showing guards at a Panama City juvenile detention boot camp restraining a 14-year-old just prior to his death.

Sunday, February 12, 2006

This Week's News: 12 Feb 2006

Education

Bill aims to decrease dropouts, encourage college
The Pueblo Chieftain – Feb 11, 2006 By Charles Ashby
DENVER - Sen. Abel Tapia wants to get children in school earlier in life and keep them there longer.

GED plan reduces dropouts
The Sun Herald – Feb 12, 2006 by Vivian Austin
JACKSON COUNTY - The Jackson County School District says its year-old general education diploma program is having the intended effect.


Foster Care

NO REFUGE A way home for foster youth
San Francisco Chronicle, USA - Feb 12, 2006
If that foster youth reaches 18 and emancipates from the system without either, the state has failed them. Each year, the state ...

Pushed out on her own at 18
Detroit Free Press, USA – Feb 12, 2006
Katrina McQueen was sitting in her classroom at Durphee Elementary when, suddenly, some grown-ups she didn't know came to take her sister and her to the principal's office. Katrina was told she was being removed from her mother's custody and sent to a cousin's house to live.
She didn't go to school for three days.

Bill makes education an incentive for foster kids
Seattle Post Intelligencer – Feb 11, 2006 by Claudia Rowe
The path out of foster care is a bleak one for teenagers: If they stay in high school and earn a diploma, the state makes them effectively homeless by cutting them from its rolls on their 18th birthday. But if they drop out, they remain covered for three more years.


Juvenile Justice

County eyes new juvenile justice centerOfficials discuss options ...
Elkhart Truth, IN - Feb 10, 2006
... Stuck between what they can afford and what the county needs, county leaders are looking for creative ways to pay for a new juvenile justice center. ...

Juvenile justice system reflected in book
Columbus Telegram, NE - Feb 10, 2006
...A coach who has befriended the boy reaches out to convince juvenile justice authorities to allow the teen to live with some of his friends in a smaller ...

Sunday, February 05, 2006

This Week's News: 5 Feb 2006

Education

Lumina Foundation For Education Awards $81.5 Million in Grants in ...
Inside Indiana Business - Feb 2, 2006
... Breaking the Cycle is an initiative to help former foster youth prepare for and transition to college. The following organization ...

Even Start, adult ed. key to success
Hampton Union, NH - Feb 3, 2006
... in which it just might not be possible for a student to remain in high school. ... is a good thing, but it must be understood that it will not eliminate drop outs.

Additional News
Failing Students Spell Profit for Some Schools (Los Angeles Times) 3 hours ago
Jefferson County gets $400,000 grant (The Natchez Democrat) 2 days ago


Foster Care


Locals to attend Foster Youth Day in Atlanta
Houston Home Journal, GA - Feb 1, 2006
“CASA and Foster Youth Day at the Capitol” will take place on Thursday at the State Capitol in Atlanta. About 12 child advocates ...

Hear the foster youth
San Francisco Chronicle, USA - Jan 31, 2006
At a noon rally held by California Youth Connection, a nonprofit advocacy organization, more than 150 current and former foster youth gathered to tell their ...

Additional News
Meetings Will Explain Educational Voucher For Michigan Foster Children (PR Newswire via Yahoo! Finance) 2 days ago
Group home reform proposed (Baltimore Sun) 2 hours ago
Process tries to help families (Fort Wayne Journal Gazette) 5 hours ago
Key role in national youth mental health initiative (University of Melbourne University News) 2 days ago


Juvenile Justice

Bill would allow veil of secrecy for juvenile jails
Louisville Courier-Journal, KY – Feb 5, 2006
By Deborah Yetter. FRANKFORT, Ky. -- Juvenile justice officials are pushing a bill that would give them broad power to keep records secret at the state's 12 ...

State to get juvenile justice grants
Chicago Tribune, United States - Feb 2, 2006
Illinois will receive as much as $7.5 million in grants to enact reform throughout a juvenile justice system, including providing services such as education ...

Mentors transform lives in state youth prisons
San Mateo County Times, CA - Jan 29, 2006
... Scales' trajectory from being a foster youth to the prison system is, unfortunately, too common a story, juvenile justice experts say. ...

Additional News
Truancy is major problem (Gilmer Mirror) 15 hours ago