Monday, January 31, 2011

This Week's News: Youth in Transition

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Youth in Transition News

Monday, January 24, 2011

This Week's News: Youth in Transition

Education

The State, Columbia, SC – January 21, 2011
A sweeping $350,000 state-funded initiative to prevent dropouts at a high school with one of the Midlands’ highest dropout rates is only five months old but already drawing rave reviews.  “This time of the year, we would have had about 15 students in the 9th grade drop out. They get discouraged and don’t come back after Christmas break,” said Nathan White, 53, principal of C.A. Johnson High School, which serves a low-income area in downtown Columbia.

Daily Camera, Boulder, CO – January 22, 2011
Johnny Fernandez hated seeing teens, year after year, give up on school and slip away to an uncertain future.  "I feel responsible for every single kid," said the assistant principal at Lafayette's Centaurus High School. "You get tired of seeing kids disengage."  So he and others at the school gathered a group of students who seemed most likely to drop out, those with a large number of absences and few credits, and asked them what they needed from the school to make it work.

The Herald, Smithfield, NE – January 19, 2011
Fewer students are dropping out of Johnston County schools.  Last school year, the one-year dropout rate in Johnston schools fell to 3.71 percent from 4.58 percent in 2008-09. Last year, 340 students quit school, down from 411 the year before. "A tremendous amount of work has been done to address this problem in last few years," said Keith Beamon, the school system's chief academic officer. "Our position around the region and the Triangle has elevated."

Juvenile Justice

Whither Young Offenders? The Debate Has Begun
The New York Times, California – January 23, 2011
Joaquin E. DiazDeLeon, a former Fresno gang member, spent two years inside California's juvenile prison system. What he found there, he said, was no better than the streets he came from.  Instead of rehabilitating young offenders, he said, correctional officers spent most of their time separating rival gangs. Violence was so pervasive, he said, that he kept his gang affiliation just to protect himself.

The Crime Report – January 19, 2011
The Coalition for Juvenile Justice, a national association of governor-appointed state advisory groups, is critical of the A&E series “Beyond Scared Straight,” which began airing last week. The series highlights an intervention that purports to turn children and youth away from delinquent and criminal behavior. In fact, such approaches, the coalition said, have been shown to have the opposite of the desired effect and to increase delinquency. Started years ago with good intentions, ‘Scared Straight’ approaches have now been well-evaluated and shown to have a damaging rather than positive impact, said David Schmidt, chair of the coalition and president of the New Mexico Council on Crime and Delinquency.

Youth Today – January 22, 2011
The number of independent state juvenile justice agencies has dropped recently, and it is likely that 2011 will drive that figure down again.  There were 21 independent agencies in 2007, according to information collected annually by the Braintree, Mass.-based Council of Juvenile Correctional Administrators. By 2009, that number had dropped to 16. New Jersey, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Tennessee and West Virginia had all moved juvenile services within the purview of their respective social services or child welfare agencies.

Foster Care

San Antonio Express-News, Texas – January 23, 2011
A new study commissioned by the state found that thousands of children bounce around in the foster care system for years and never find a permanent home, partly because of flaws in the judicial system.  Conducted by Texas Appleseed, an Austin-based social justice group, the study examined data for all 21,000 children in long-term foster care in Texas in 2008. It revealed that children in state custody for more than three years experienced an average of 11 different placements, according to a news release issued by the group.

The Salt Lake Tribune, Utah – January 18, 2011
Legislative auditors believe too many Utah children are being diverted to foster care instead of being treated, along with their families, at home.  A report released this week by Utah’s Legislative Auditor General says putting more children into foster care is costing the state too much money when alternatives are available that also can protect children, plus help resolve family issues.  The auditors pointed out that more than 700 children have been added to the Utah foster care system in the past decade, a 38 percent increase, and a trend opposite to what has happened around the U.S.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

This Week's News: Youth in Transition

Education

Billings Gazette, Helena, MT – January 12, 2011
A bill before the Education and Cultural Resource Committee would increase the legal dropout rate from 16 to 18.  Proponents, including State Superintendent Denise Juneau, say the change will set a state expectation that all Montana students will graduate, which in today's economy is imperative for a good job and a secure future, proponents say.

2TheAdvocate, Louisiana – January 14, 2011
The state is about to launch a new bid to aid troubled public school students after an earlier program was scrapped, officials said Thursday.  The new effort, called “Connections,” will replace an anti-dropout push called pre-GED/skills options that was launched in 2000 and has 6,600 students now.
The Herald News, Fall River, MA – January 13, 2011
The path to a high school diploma and an associate degree is about to get easier for students on the verge of dropping out of school.  The school department and Bristol Community College have partnered to offer the Gateway to College program, aimed at giving students who have recently or are at risk of dropping out the chance to stay in school.  The national program, which is currently offered in three Massachusetts communities, serves youths 16 to 21 years old, who have dropped out of school or are significantly behind in credits and unlikely to graduate from high school.

Juvenile Justice

Star Gazette, Albany, NY – January 9, 2011
With many of New York's juvenile-justice centers operating at less than 50 percent capacity, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has targeted them for restructuring and possibly closure, but unions, lawmakers and communities are concerned about losing jobs in an already struggling upstate. The facilities are underused, the recidivism rate is too high and the treatment provided has been proven ineffective, Cuomo said in his recent State of the State speech. The average yearly cost per child is $220,000, but some beds cost nearly $350,000 annually, and the recidivism rate is higher than 80 percent.

Taunton Daily Gazette, Taunton, MA – January 11, 2011
Unless it raises $30,000 in the coming weeks, Taunton Youth Court will shut down at the end of the month, its organizers said.  The restorative justice program, which uses positive peer pressure to improve student behavior as an alternative to the juvenile justice system and has strong support in Taunton High School, has lost significant grant funding in the midst of the struggling economy.  “It’s so successful, I don’t understand how anyone who has the ability to make a contribution can’t or won’t do so,” said local attorney Louise Laudebache Glass, who volunteers to sit as a judge at Taunton Youth Court. “It’s turned lives around.”

American-Statesman, Texas – January 12, 2011
In a surprise vote, the state Sunset Advisory Commission decided unanimously Wednesday to do away with the Texas Youth Commission and the Juvenile Probation Commission and merge it into a single agency that would oversee all state corrections programs for youths.  The Legislature rejected a similar proposal two years ago, but supporters of the change acknowledged help from an unlikely new ally: the state's $27 billion budget shortfall.  "A budget crisis can produce excellent opportunities to do very good things that we probably would not have done otherwise," said state Rep. Jerry Madden, R-Richardson, a leading supporter of the merger.

Foster Care

13 News, Orlando, FL -  January 12, 2011
Jaleeca Dawkins is determined not to become a statistic.  She turned 18 in December, during her senior year of high school.  At first, she celebrated, but reality soon set in -- Jaleeca was on her own.  "The day I turned 18, I got my first rent notice," she said.  Jaleeca was in foster care for nearly five years. After living in an abusive home, then group and foster homes, shelters, and finally transitional housing at 18, she said she finally has a support system helping her grow up.

The Wall Street Journal, New York , NY – January 13, 2011
Robert and Nancy Schulman make no niceties: They reward progress, not need.  The couple this year are giving $250,000 to a number of New York City foster care and domestic violence organizations for two programs aimed at one goal: getting people to become productive members of their communities. More than a decade ago, Ms. Schulman, a psychologist and social worker, began leading support groups for domestic-violence victims. After selling his asset management business in New York in 2000, her husband wanted in on the project. In 2005, the couple founded a charity called Of Home, Family and Future, which gives grants to women and children who were affected by domestic violence.

Monday, January 10, 2011

This Week's News: Youth in Transition

Education

The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore MD – January 6, 2011
When Dorian Teal wanted to turn his life around, the high-school dropout decided he didn't just want to be great, he wanted to be educated.  The now-20-year-old student, who dropped out of Edmondson-Westside High School two years ago, is among the more than 2,000 students who have made their way back to the Baltimore school system in the past three years to take advantage of the Great Kids Come Back campaign, an effort launched by the school system in 2008 to lower the city's dropout rate.

The Salt Lake Tribune, Utah – January 5, 2011
The high school graduation rate is up in Utah — up to about 90 percent for last school year, according to the state Office of Education.  But it could drop significantly for this school year, when Utah will be required to change the way it calculates graduation rates.  About 90 percent of the Class of 2010 graduated, up from 88 percent in 2009, according to the state office. Graduation rates also rose among each of Utah’s ethnic groups, and the gaps between the rates of white students and Latino, American Indian and black students narrowed by several percentage points.
Lubbock Avalanch-Journal, Montana – January 7, 2011
One of the great tragedies in our society are people who are capable of graduating from high school but don’t.  The Lubbock Independent School District began a new initiative at the start of the current school year called Expectation Graduation — designed to help students who didn’t graduate to get back on track to receiving their diplomas.

Juvenile Justice

NY Daily News, New York, NY – January 4, 2011
Gov. Cuomo on Wednesday will call for an overhaul of the state's troubled juvenile justice system - putting him on a collision course with Mayor Bloomberg.  Cuomo, in his first State of the State address on Wednesday afternoon, will propose tightening the state's reins on the system by consolidating the 25 detention facilities.  Bloomberg is demanding the state hand over control of jailing juveniles to local governments, meaning New York City kids in detention would remain in the five boroughs - instead of heading upstate.
The Examiner, Washington, D.C. – January 4, 2011
The District's troubled juvenile justice agency is looking for a yoga teacher, or maybe a tai-chi instructor, to work with some of the city's most dangerous youths. The idea for the new Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services programming comes from interim deputy director Barry Holman. Late last month, Holman e-mailed the agency's staff to see if they have "hidden talents that might be tapped to further our work with the young people in our care." In the e-mail obtained by The Washington Examiner, Holman said his primary interest was in finding among the staff an instructor certified in yoga, tai-chi, or another "mind-body connection discipline."  The agency is coming off a controversial year during which more than a dozen of its wards were charged with murder and at least a half-dozen were killed. A heavy focus on rehabilitation programs for city youths was blamed by critics for the soaring violence. Under political pressure, former Mayor Adrian Fenty fired then DYRS interim director Marc Schindler six months after he replaced Vincent Schiraldi.

Foster Care

The Gazette, Montgomery County, MD – January 5, 2011
If there is a problem, Carol Trawick's skill, sometimes what she calls her affliction, is finding a way to make it better.  The philanthropist's "give where you live" philosophy has helped shape Bethesda and the rest of the county through donations totaling millions of dollars to arts, health and humanities charities. The Latin American Youth Center will use a $230,000 Youth in Transition grant to provide work experience for teenagers aging out of foster care, or who are teen parents, Montero said.

Examiner, Hartford, CT – January 5, 2011
Families in Connecticut who have foster and adoptive children have a resource available that can provide children with a creative outlet in which they can express their emotions.  Creative Arts for Developing Minds “provides opportunities for creative expression, enhancement of positive self-esteem, and development of a sense of community to foster care and adoptive children aged two through twelve, through music, art and movement.”   Creative Arts for Developing Mindsis the only organization in Connecticut which uses the arts to respond to the unique psychological effects of early childhood trauma experienced by foster care and adoptive children.

Monday, January 03, 2011

This Week's News: Youth in Transition

Education

The Charlotte Post – December 29, 2010
In the last decade, a national coalition of public school educators, parents and civic activists have charted substantial progress in deterring tens of thousands of students from dropping out of high school, according to a newly-published study.  The study showed there were 120,000 more high school graduates in 2008 than in 2001 (holding population constant) – a result fueled by overall graduation-rate increases in 29 states and significant graduation-rate increases among African-American, Latino-American and Native-American pupils.

News Observer, North Carolina – December 31, 2010
North Carolina has become the nation's incubator of early college high schools, with one-third of the total in the United States.  A new one will be launched in 2011 at N.C. State University, bringing the innovative concept of blended high school and college to one of the state's flagship campuses. The school will focus on science and technology, and its location - the edge of NCSU's Centennial Campus - is sure to be a draw. Early college high schools offer free college courses and an accelerated educational path to students who are often the first in their family to go to college. North Carolina has 71 such schools with 15,000 students - more than any other state.
WLTX, The Greenville News – December 28, 2010
While a proposal to lower the number of credits some students need to graduate from South Carolina high schools would save money, some educators say it would leave students shortchanged.  School districts could save thousands of dollars by winnowing elective offerings that no longer would be required of students not planning to pursue a four-year degree, said state Rep. Dan Cooper, a Piedmont Republican who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee and a sponsor of the bill.

Juvenile Justice

WKMG Local 6, Tallahassee, FL – December 31, 2010
The head of the Miami-Dade Juvenile Services Department, whose programs to keep young offenders out of detention have served as national models, will become the first woman to lead Florida's juvenile justice department.  Gov.-elect Rick Scott on Friday appointed Wansley Walters to lead the state's Department of Juvenile Justice.  Walters, who headed Scott's juvenile justice transition team, is currently the director of juvenile services in Miami-Dade County.

WINK News Now, Fort Myers, FL – December 29, 2010
Fla-Kaley Graham is a different teen than she was two years ago.  "I was skipping school, I was going out for the weekends, and not coming back until Sunday night really late," she told WINK News.  Graham says family trouble led her to start hanging out with the wrong crowd at school. She was eventually kicked off the cheerleading team, and suspended from high school.  "Without Pace, I'd probably be on my own," Graham explained.
Winston-Salem Journal, North Carolina – December 30, 2010
Gov. Bev Perdue is trying to save some money with her proposed government reorganization. A coalition of child-advocacy groups has sound concerns, however, that one element of that plan will unnecessarily harm services designed to help children stay out of trouble with the law.  Perdue has proposed reducing the number of state departments from 14 to eight. In the process, she expects to reduce administrative costs and improve efficiency. One move would group the current Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention into a larger Department of Public Safety that would be focused on criminal punishment.

Foster Care

Youth Today – December 28, 2010
More than a year after passage of a law intended to give more support to youths aging out of foster care, the federal government is now pushing states to participate in two programs that promote guardianship placements and extension of foster care until age 21.  The two programs were included in the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act, which was signed into law in October of 2009 and allows for two new uses of federal IV-E funds, a large federal entitlement that matches state expenditures for child welfare services. One allows states to use federal IV-E funds to help pay for a guardianship assistance program (GAP); the other enables states to use IV-E money on young adults up to the age of 21.

The New York Times, Bronx, NY – December 26, 2010
Lydia Monserrate lived in 13 foster homes in the past five years. But she is not an orphan.  “I asked my mom a thousand times if I could come back home,” Ms. Monserrate, 21, said quietly, her face wearing a mask of pain.  When she was 14, Ms. Monserrate, who grew up in the Castle Hill section of the Bronx, began skipping school. She befriended the neighborhood “bad girls,” and they shoplifted, hopped subway turnstiles and drank in the park. One summer she ran away to Southern California, where she stayed with an aunt.

Southwest Minneapolis Patch, Minneapolis, MN – December 29, 2010
Over the holidays, the first three tenants moved into Nicollet Square, an innovative new housing project for homeless youth in Kingfield. By the end of January, all 42 studio apartments should be occupied at the project, which combines social services, affordable housing and employment assistance for young people struggling with homelessness or aging out of foster care.