Monday, February 22, 2010

This Week's News: Youth in Transition

Education

High Schools to Offer Plan to Graduate 2 Years Early
The New York Times – February 17, 2010
Dozens of public high schools in eight states will introduce a program next year allowing 10th graders who pass a battery of tests to get a diploma two years early and immediately enroll in community college.  Students who pass but aspire to attend a selective college may continue with college preparatory courses in their junior and senior years, organizers of the new effort said.

E-math classes: One community's approach to help kids make the grade
MinnPost.com, Edina, MN – February 16, 2010
Edina High School principal W. Bruce Locklear was talking about "math deficient" students, those kids who have failed or are at-risk of failing math graduation standards tests and thus likely to leave school without a diploma.  And, since it reflected a grain of truth, he was using a little humor with his audience at a recent Association of Metropolitan School Districts meeting.  "Inevitably we were waiting on some divine intervention to teach them math and it wasn't working,'' Locklear said wryly. So, for those kids not making the grade in math, Edina is trying an experimental approach: E-math classes, a hybrid of human and computer-generated math tutelage.

HISD's 'Grad Lab' tackles dropout problem
ABC13, Houston, TX – February 16, 2010
As part of a new initiative, this January all HISD high schools began offering a new alternative for students who have dropped out of high school or are in need of credit recovery. It's designed to reach not only those who have already dropped out but those students who are at risk of dropping out. It's called "Grad Lab" and it's designed for students who have failed three or more courses in a previous semester, students with excessive absences, students at any grade level who have been retained while in high school and those who have dropped out and want to return to school.

Juvenile Justice

Second chance for first-time offenders
MyFox, Tampa Bay, FL – February 17, 2010
From Tallahassee to Tampa, governments are under a lot of pressure to trim their budgets and Florida's criminal justice system is becoming a big focus of attention.  Cost-cutting experimental juvenile justice reforms aimed at keeping non-violent kids out of the system are already underway in Tampa.  A program that may be under the axe is one that gives civil citations to teens in trouble, instead of placing them under arrest.

Mental health court keeps children out of jail
Houma Today, Shreveport, LA – February 15, 2010
Eyes glassy from lack of sleep and prescription mood stabilizers, the 13-year-old sat on the sofa in his parents’ home and muttered angrily under his breath. A moment later he yelled at his mother.  He is on probation for assaulting a staff member at a local medical facility and hurting another child, and suspended from seventh grade for threatening a teacher. At age 5, he set the schoolyard on fire. The Individualized Disposition Docket Court — the first of its kind in Louisiana — was established four years ago to deal with juveniles found guilty of crimes and diagnosed with serious mental illnesses.  “It’s not that we are going into the community and snatching up kids with mental illnesses,” said Judge Paul Young, who oversees the program. “These are children who have committed offenses or are ungovernable and have been adjudicated by the court.

Foster Care

CASA seeks to aid at-risk foster teens
The Daily News, Kentucky – February 13, 2010
Foster children who become “of age” and leave the state’s custody are at risk of becoming homeless, a victim or even a criminal.  It’s those circumstances that mentoring programs, such as “Fostering Teens” planned by Court Appointed Special Advocates of Southern Kentucky, seek to change. “This is not a new program per se but more of an emphasis for CASA to work with those teenagers,” said Will Constable, director of CASA. “Kids who are not adopted ... have very poor outcomes. Kentucky has a wonderful program that if they extend their care with the state, they can get lots of educational benefits.”

UIC gets govt. grant for foster kids mental health
Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago, IL – February 18, 2010
Mental health services for foster kids could get a boost thanks to research at the University of Illinois at Chicago.  UIC social work researchers have received a nearly $1 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health. It's part of the government's stimulus money.  The funds will be used to analyze ways for social workers to address behavior problems in child-welfare settings.

Monday, February 15, 2010

This Week's News: Youth in Transition

Education

Advocates of at-risk youths plot strategy at Children's Summit
Houston Chronicle, Houston, TX – February 9, 2010
Dealing with Houston's emerging “third-world” population of underprivileged children at a time when the pool of money for such initiatives is dwindling will require creativity and tough decisions on the part of youth advocates.  That was the consensus among the government officials, educators and nonprofit groups gathered Tuesday for Children at Risk's fifth annual Children's Summit.   “The work for the next year is to figure out what we can move through the madness, to move the needle for children, (but also be) revenue neutral and still substantive,” said Marc Levin, director of the Center for Effective Justice, a Texas nonprofit research firm.  Nearly half of the high school students in the Houston Independent School District fail to graduate in four years, and a large number of them drop out, leading to much bigger problems for the community, according to Children at Risk, a Houston based advocacy group.

Bill to raise school drop-out age clears state Senate panel
Savannah Morning News, Atlanta, GA – February 12, 2010
A proposal co-authored by state Sen. Lester Jackson to raise the minimum school dropout age from 16 to 17 cleared a Senate panel Thursday.  The Education and Youth Committee urged passage of the bill after it was merged with a bill sponsored by Sen. Vincent Fort, D-Atlanta.  The co-authors say the proposal will divert young dropouts from a course that often includes unemployment, crime and prison.

Bus tour fights Oklahoma's dropout rate
NewsOK, Oklahoma – February 11, 2010
Last year, more than 4,000 Oklahoma high school students gave up on their diplomas. Across the nation, that number is 1.2 million — a figure that was called "unacceptable and unimaginable” during Drop Out Prevention Day on Wednesday at the Capitol. "We believe that high school drop out prevention is everyone’s business,” Freda Deskin, co-founder of the For Youth Initiative, which brought education and business leaders from across the state together to discuss the dropout problem.

Juvenile Justice

Bills would limit private juvenile detention centers to 48 beds
The Baltimore Sun, Carroll County, MD – February 9, 2010
Bowling Brook Preparatory School opened its doors in Carroll County in 1957 as a small school for orphans.  But by the time 17-year-old Isaiah Simmons died there after being improperly restrained by staff in 2007, Bowling Brook had grown into a large, privately run juvenile detention center housing more than 170 boys.  A law passed after Simmons' death capped the number of beds allowed at state-run residential facilities at 48, but left privately run programs open to expansion.  Sen. Bobby A. Zirkin, a Baltimore County Democrat, has introduced a bill that would extend the cap to private facilities, even as the new owners of what used to be Bowling Brook are considering expansion. Del. Dan Morhaim, also a Baltimore County Democrat, is sponsoring a companion version of the bill.

Troubled teens, canines help each other
The Detroit News, Pontiac, MI – February 8, 2010
Once Teacher's Pet is in session, it's hard to tell the difference between the teachers and the students.  A dozen teens from Oakland County's Children's Village are paired with a handful of rambunctious dogs from Oakland Pet Adoption.  Both need help to make a better life for themselves on the outside. The teens, placed by the courts into the Oakland County facility for troubled youth and juvenile offenders, have been challenged with the task of training the dogs -- who have lingered at the shelter because of behavioral problems -- into well-behaved, adoptable pets. The pets are there to offer unconditional love to youngsters in the criminal justice system. The animal-assisted therapy program is also in place at the Macomb County Juvenile Justice Center in Mount Clemens, the Kingsley Montgomery School in Waterford and at Crossroads for Youth in Oxford.

Foster Care

Program raises money to help troubled teen girls
New 8 Austin, Austin, TX – February 12, 2010
Every year, hundreds of children in Texas age out of the foster care system when they turn 18. The thought of not getting adopted can cause a lot of stress for a teenager who wants a permanent home. Sometimes, that stress can lead to anger and bad behavior.  However, there are some programs in place to help these troubled teens, programs like the New Life Residential Treatment Center in Canyon Lake. Sixty girls ages 11 to 18 live in the center, with more on the waiting list. About 90 percent are foster children waiting to be adopted.

Delaware government: Vouchers assist those who age out of foster care
The News Journal, Dover, DE – February 7, 2010
The state is extending a hand to youths who age out of the foster care system, offering housing assistance by way of 50 Family Unification Housing Vouchers available to young adults ages 18 to 21. Originally, the competitive vouchers were intended to bring families together, but the federal government has decreed that they also may be used to provide housing for those who leave foster care and need affordable housing in a safe environment. Currently, the Delaware State Housing Authority and the state Division of Family Services are seeking participants who will pay 35 percent of their income for housing with the voucher covering the balance.

Monday, February 08, 2010

This Week's News: Youth in Transition

Education

For Students at Risk, Early College Proves a Draw
The New York Times, Raeford, NC – February 7, 2010
Precious Holt, a 12th grader with dangly earrings and a SpongeBob pillow, climbs on the yellow school bus and promptly falls asleep for the hour-plus ride to Sandhills Community College. When the bus arrives, she checks in with a guidance counselor and heads off to a day of college classes, blending with older classmates until 4 p.m., when she and the other seniors from SandHoke Early College High School gather for the ride home.

Dropout bill gets big nod
Savannah Morning News, Atlanta, GA – February 5, 2010
State Superintendent of Schools Kathy Cox on Thursday endorsed State Sen. Lester Jackson's proposal to raise the school dropout age.  Cox voiced support for the plan during a meeting that was part of Savannah-Chatham Day, sponsored by the Savannah Area Chamber of Commerce.  Jackson's dropout age bill is part of the legislative agenda the chamber is promoting at the annual event at the capital.

"Choices" program aims to lower drop out rate
Carolina Live, Georgetown County, SC – February 3, 2010
Decisions you make as a teenager can impact the rest of your life. Nowhere is that more apparent than in South Carolina, where the school drop out rate last year was 44 percent.  That's why business leaders in Georgetown County are trying to lead kids toward making the right decisions while they're young.  Michael Himmelrick is a banker, not a teacher. But for the past two days, he's been instructing 7th graders at Waccamaw Middle School about how to make the right choices in life.  The "Choices" program is sponsored by the Georgetown County Chamber of Commerce, with an eye toward helping 13-year-olds understand that the decisions they make now will impact their entire lives.

Juvenile Justice

Program gives troubled teens a chance to make a fresh start
Pocono Record, Pennsylvania – February 8, 2010
Two years ago, Brian had stolen a car and been involved with drugs.  The Reading teenager was used to seeing his parents fight constantly and go to jail. Acting out his pain through criminal acts, he seemed destined for self-destruction.  “I was terrible,” Brian said. “I didn’t want to follow the rules.”  Today, Brian, now 16, is trying to turn his life around while living with four other teens at an Albrightsville home. An aspiring nurse, he attends high school in Jim Thorpe, a town that’s cleaner, quieter and safer than where he came from. “I don’t want to be like my parents,” he said. “I believe in myself now. I want to have a purpose in life and be successful. I want a family of my own some day to take care of and be responsible for.”  That’s what Child First Services, a program working to help Brian and other troubled teens, likes to hear.  Child First Services is part of HumanWorks Affiliates, a Lehigh Valley-based organization of which Nathaniel Williams is president and CEO. Williams, who was orphaned at age 5 and grew up in the New York City foster care system, founded HumanWorks in 1993 and Child First Services in 1997.

Obama Juvenile Justice Budget Down; Earmark Disputes Loom
The Crime Report – February 4, 2010
The Obama administation’s funding proposal for the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention is down from last year: $290 million compared with last year’s $317 million plan, reports Youth Today. The largest difference between Obama’s last proposal and what actually got funded for 2010 was the demonstration projects account: he proposed it be nixed, and it got $91 million from Congress. Youth Today predicts that Congress will restore earmarks that Obama wanted to eliminate.

Foster Care

Vouchers assist those who age out of foster care
Delaware Online, Dover, DE – February 7, 2010
The state is extending a hand to youths who age out of the foster care system, offering housing assistance by way of 50 Family Unification Housing Vouchers available to young adults ages 18 to 21. Originally, the competitive vouchers were intended to bring families together, but the federal government has decreed that they also may be used to provide housing for those who leave foster care and need affordable housing in a safe environment. Currently, the Delaware State Housing Authority and the state Division of Family Services are seeking participants who will pay 35 percent of their income for housing with the voucher covering the balance.

Mentors key for foster kids-turned-adults
Mohave Daily News, Phoenix, AZ – February 7, 2010
Nina White entered the Arizona foster-care system at age 12.  She bounced from group homes to foster homes to detention centers for six years.  On her 18th birthday, she left the system by aging out of it.  Social workers, youth advocates and state administrators agree that youths like Nina, who go directly from foster care into adulthood, are perfectly prepared to fail miserably. But Nina, now 20, might make it.  Today, she is a student with plans to become a nurse. She has a car and a home and chance for a future.  She is on her way because one person decided to care for her.  A mentor, she said, saved her.

Monday, February 01, 2010

This Week's News: Youth in Transition

Education

City, State Leaders Work To Combat High School Drop-Out Rate
NBC4i, Columbus, OH – January 28, 2010
Every 26 seconds, a student drops out of high school. That’s 7,000 students a day nationwide. 19,000 Ohio students dropped out of high school in 2009.  “Attendance is often a sign of falling behind academically. Why do you want to go to school if you can’t keep up?“ said David Andrews, a professor at The Ohio State University.  City of Columbus and State of Ohio education leaders gathered with students and community partners Thursday to see how they can help turn the numbers around.   The event is called “Community Partnerships: Making Graduation Possible” and is sponsored by the organization America’s Promise Alliance, founded by Retired General Colin Powell and his wife Alma.

Pittsburgh-Allegheny partnership aims to help school dropouts
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Pittsburgh-Allegheny County, PA – January 28, 2010
La'Teja Kirk dropped out of Westinghouse High School just days into her senior year after getting into a fight. She then spent the next two years working at Wendy's.  But now, Kirk, 20, of Homewood, is working to get her diploma through Communities In Schools of Pittsburgh-Allegheny County.  "I feel like this was a positive program for me," said Kirk, who wants to pursue a psychology degree. "I knew I wanted to do something with my life and be a positive role model for my little sister. Dropping out wasn't the answer."  Pennsylvania needs more programs such as Communities In Schools to get its more than 117,000 dropouts back in class, according to a report released Wednesday by the Harrisburg-based nonprofit, Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children.

Drop Back In paves another path to high school diploma
TC Palm, St. Lucie County, FL – January 22, 2010
It is a last chance, given in church meeting rooms and storefronts where students quietly labor at computer terminals without the distraction of crowded halls and the social milieu of traditional high schools.  “Here, all you’ve got to focus on is your work,” said 19-year-old Anthony Sumpter, who left Fort Pierce Westwood High School in the 11th grade. “I want to be successful. I have a child. I want to be able to take care of her.”  He is among some 110 students now enrolled in the St. Lucie Drop Back In Academy. The year-old private-public partnership offers high school dropouts ages 16 through 21 a chance to earn the same diplomas they would have gotten had they stayed in school.

Juvenile Justice

Minnesota lawmakers push juvenile justice alternatives
Pioneer Press, Minnesota – January 28, 2010
Experiments in three Minnesota counties to change the way juvenile offenders are dealt with could soon be expanded to other parts of the state.  Minnesota legislators and others familiar with the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative report on their early findings after a pilot program.  Democratic state Sen. Mee Moua says the Senate Judiciary Committee she leads is considering how to duplicate the program now being used in Dakota, Hennepin and Ramsey counties.

City Signals Intent to Put Fewer Teenagers in Jail
The New York Times, New York, NY – January 20, 2010
The Bloomberg administration plans to merge the city’s Department of Juvenile Justice into its child welfare agency, signaling a more therapeutic approach toward delinquency that will send fewer of the city’s troubled teenagers to jail. The integration of the agencies is effective immediately, and was announced by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg in his State of the City speech Wednesday afternoon.

Juvenile justice reform backed
Omaha World-Herald, Lincoln, NE – January 28, 2010
When he was 16, Justin Tolston made a stupid mistake. He shoplifted a $4 bottle of facial cream.  He pleaded no contest and successfully fulfilled his punishment: 90 days of probation.  It wasn't until recently that Tolston learned how a misdemeanor offense in a supposedly noncriminal juvenile court can come back to bite you.  He was told he probably wouldn't be hired as an intern in the State Attorney General's Office because of his youthful transgression.  Tolston, now a University of Nebraska-Lincoln sophomore seeking a degree in political science, eventually got the job, but only after a couple of state senators intervened on his behalf.

Foster Care

CWLA Reveals Top 5 Child Welfare Challenges and Opportunities for 2010
Center Daily Times, Washington, DC – January 27, 2010
Kicking off the year, the Child Welfare League of America (CWLA), the nation’s oldest and largest membership-based child welfare organization, announced its top challenges and opportunities for 2010, during its “Children 2010: Leading a New Era” National Conference. CWLA’s Top 5 list captures events and trends are shaping the future for foster children this year…and beyond.  “The Top 5 are key issues affecting foster children. Even though the economy continues to take its toll, we do see promising changes in the way our nation treats children and tackles child welfare issues,” said CWLA’s CEO Chris James-Brown.

Foster-care system saving more kids
Miami Herald, Florida – January 27, 2010
The privatization of Florida's foster-care system has allowed local communities to design and manage their own unique systems of care. This success story is the result of hard work, dedication and talent. But most of all, this success story is the result of the public-private partnership between Our Kids and the state Department of Children & Families (DCF).  Our Kids began providing services in mid-2005, and in a few short years, Miami's foster-care system has been transformed into one of the state's best performers.

Documentary Examines Problems that Confront Foster Children Who “Age Out”
GTR Newspapers, Washington, DC – January 28, 2010
Montana social worker Matt Anderson is on a mission to educate the public about the pitfalls of American foster care, especially older children about to age out of the system.  Many of these young people do not have family or public support. They are at higher risk of going to jail, suffering from depression, getting pregnant, becoming homeless or other problems.  Anderson is working to complete the documentary “From Place to Place” that follows teenagers who have turned 18 and left foster care.