Monday, June 25, 2012

This Week's News: Youth in Transition

Education

Those 857 Desks? A Message for the Candidates
The New York Times, Washington, D.C. – June 20, 2012
Tourists trying to figure out how to reach the capital’s monuments and museums on Wednesday found something on the National Mall that was not on their maps: 857 student desks arrayed near the Washington Monument.

Norfolk graduation coach tries to keep kids on track
PilotOnline.com, Norfolk, VA – June 24, 2012
A 16-year-old in long brown bangs, jeans, slippers and a gray hoodie stood at the curb in Ocean View. State law said she should be in school, but the tardy bell at Granby High had rung two hours ago, and it wouldn't be the first time if she skipped classes altogether.

94% of Students at Dropout Prevention High Schools Accepted to College
Texas Insider, Dallas, TX – June 20, 2012
Texans Can Academies, a charter high school organization serving dropouts and potential dropouts, today announced that during the 2011-2012 school year 94% of their 1,255 graduating seniors were accepted to college.

Juvenile Justice

Council explores expanding alternative peer-youth court
The Inquirer, Pennsylvania – June 21, 2012
DURING HIS Chester High School days, Brian Foster was disrespectful, often got into fights and eventually found himself in trouble when his friends went to settle a score for him.  He wouldn't snitch on them.  But then he got involved, at first reluctantly, with the Chester Upland Youth Court, in Chester.

Treatment is the goal in juvenile justice system
Marion Star, Marion, OH – June 17, 2012
Some see the juvenile justice system as a way for youth to "get off light" for serious crimes. Those who work in the system see it as a way to preserve the futures of Marion's troubled youths.

Foster Care

Young Utahns moving away from homelessness
The Salt Lake Tribune, Salt Lake County, UT – June 19, 2012
The shelves and cabinets around Samantha Czlapinski’s West Valley City apartment remain mostly empty, leaving the 19-year-old with a blank slate and a renewed shot at living as an honest-to-gosh adult.

Teen Pregnancy

U.S. teen pregnancy declines to historic low
The Wall Street Journal, Chicago, IL – June 20, 2012
The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy announced Wednesday that the U.S. teen pregnancy rate fell 40% to a historic low between 1990 and 2008.

Monday, June 18, 2012

This Week's News: Youth in Transition

Education

Illinois lawmakers raise high school drop out age
WREX 13, Ilinnois – June 16, 2012
President Obama wants more states to raise the minimum age for high school students to drop out. Governor Pat Quinn and Illinois lawmakers are on board. But not many states are following suit.

Arizona high school graduation rate grows by leaps, bounds
KTAR, Washington, D.C. – June 13, 2012
Arizona high schools have increased their graduation rate by 24 percentage points in the last decade, the biggest increase in the country, according to a national report released Friday.

Teachers Open Up On Why Kids Really Drop Out
NPR – June 14, 2012
It's the end of the school year, and teachers and students are enjoying some downtime. But some kids won't be going back to school next fall because about a million students drop out every year. Host Michel Martin discusses the dropout crisis with teachers from three cities with high dropout rates: Las Vegas, St. Louis and Washington, D.C.

Juvenile Justice

Youth justice a model for others
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Jonesboro, AK – June 17, 2012
The new $15 million Youth Development and Justice Center facility, set to open in Jonesboro in August, isn’t just another kiddie jail.  The facility is a reflection of the collaborative effort among police, schools and the court that has made Clayton a national model for keeping kids out of jail.

Peer Jury Gives First Time Juvenile Offenders a Second Chance
Western Springs Patch, Western Springs, IL – June 13, 2012
Since October of 1997, first time juvenile offenders in Western Springs have been given a second chance through the police department’s Juvenile Peer Jury, an alternative to juvenile court.

Foster Care    

Foster youth overcome the odds to earn their degrees at UCLA
UCLA Newsroom, California – June 11, 2012
Marching with the thousands of students in UCLA's various commencement ceremonies this month will be a special group of 20 graduates who in past years might never have made it to the finish line: former foster youth.

Junior League offers Education and Career fair for teens in Foster Care
NJ.com, New Jersey – June 11, 2012
The Junior League of the Oranges and Short Hills, Inc. (JLOSH) and the Junior League of Montclair-Newark, Inc. (JLMN), in partnership with the Child Advocacy Clinic at the Rutgers School of Law, the Essex County Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA), and the Essex County Family Court, hosted an annual Education & Career Fair for teens in foster care who are about to age out of the child welfare system. The event took place on Thursday, May 17, at Rutgers University Law School in Newark.

Teen Pregnancy

Breaking the Link between Teen Pregnancy and Poverty Among Latinas
Fox News – June 11, 2012
The key to reducing teen pregnancy among Latinas lies in education, according to a report released by The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.
  
United Way Targets Teens in Provocative Ad Campaign
Fox 8, Milwaukee, WI – June 12, 2012
United Way of Greater Milwaukee launched a new, provocative ad campaign Tuesday, June 12th, targeted at teens. It delivers a message to parents to talk to kids about healthy relationships.

Monday, June 11, 2012

This Week's News: Youth in Transition

Education

Hope for high school dropouts
CBS News – June 9, 2012
In all the excitement of high school graduation season, it's easy to overlook the fact that 1 in 4 American high school students drop out before getting their diploma. With job prospects for dropouts bleaker than ever, an innovative program is helping many of them get back on track.

Arizona high school graduation rate improvement among best in nation
Arizona Daily Sun, Arizona – June 9, 2012
Arizona high schools have increased their graduation rate by 24 percentage points in the last decade, the biggest increase in the country, according to a national report released Friday.  State officials said one of the chief reasons for Arizona's increase has been the rise in the number of Latino students graduating from high school.

Mott Community College targets high school drop outs
NBC25, Flint, MI – June 5, 2012
Mott Community College is in the final stages of qualifying for a federal grant that will allow them to continue efforts to help at-risk students in Genesee County.

Juvenile Justice

Judge pushes for changes to state’s delinquency court
Oklahoman, Tulka, OK – June 11, 2012
Judge Doris Fransein has been pushing for a single child-focused bureau, a multidisciplinary concept that breaks down walls between agencies, dockets and community services.

Marin grand jury calls for more alternative justice programs
Marin Independent Journal, Marin County, CA – June 10, 2012
The Marin County Civil Grand Jury is calling for broader use of "restorative justice," a law enforcement philosophy that emphasizes reconciliation over punitive retribution.  In a new report, "Restorative Justice: Its Time Has Come in Marin County," the grand jury acknowledged that the practice strikes some as "soft on crime."

Foster Care

Program helps Nebraska foster children aging out of system find jobs, housing, transportation
The Republic, Omaha, NE – June 4, 2012
A program designed to help Nebraska teens when they are released from the foster care system at the age of 19 is ramping up its efforts to reach more of those young adults.

Extended foster care aims to reduce homelessness
HealthyCal.org, Ventura County, CA – June 7, 2012
For Dominique Martinez, turning 18 meant facing the possibility of homelessness.  The Ventura resident grew up in the state’s foster care system, and when she aged out in 2010, she didn’t know the first thing about finding an apartment, signing a lease or paying rent. She didn’t even know how to go grocery shopping.

Teen Pregnancy

Prevention program aims to lower teen pregnancy rate
Merced Sun-Star, Merced County, CA – June 6, 2012
Despite California's teen birth rate dropping to a record low, teen pregnancy continues to rank as a serious problem in Merced and Stanislaus counties.  Merced County ranked No. 9 and Stanislaus County ranked No. 18 in the number of teen pregnancies per 1,000 teenagers, according to a recent report from the California Department of Public Health.

Monday, June 04, 2012

This Week's News: Youth in Transition

Education

Round Rock district to consolidate high school program aimed at dropouts
Statesman.com, Round Rock, TX – June 1, 2012
To reduce costs and pave the way for creating a permanent facility, the Round Rock school district will consolidate the Success East and West school-of-choice high schools into one program.

School District applauds at-risk students, community as graduation day nears
Las Vegas Sun, Clark County, NV – June 1, 2012
The Clark County School District recognized about 500 at-risk students Thursday for beating the odds to make it to their high school graduation.

Grades Found to Give 'Early Warning' on ELL Dropouts
Education Week, Chicago, IL – May 30, 2012
How well English-language learners perform in their 9th grade courses in Chicago’s public high schools is a much stronger predictor of their graduation prospects than their language proficiency, regardless of students’ race or ethnicity, or the length of time they have been receiving language instruction, according to a new study.

Juvenile Justice

Outagamie County program works to keep kids out of juvenile justice, child welfare systems
PostCrescent.com, Appleton, WI – June 1, 2012
The road to juvenile delinquency is often lined with abuse or neglect at home.  In Outagamie County, about two-thirds of the children who are in trouble with the law have been involved with child welfare, according to Mark Mertens, manager of the county’s Youth and Family Services Divisio

Teens turn corner with jury of their peers
The News Star, Louisiana – June 3, 2012
Teen court can be the positive influence some youth need to turn their lives around at an early age.  Ouachita Parish's teen court program, which has been in operation since 1986, allows juveniles who have been found guilty of nonviolent misdemeanors to go in front of a group of their peers to receive an alternative sentence.

Study: Race Impacts Severity of Teen Sentences
National Journal – May 31, 2012
People are more likely to assign blame to juvenile defendants if they imagined them as black, increasing the likelihood of supporting a harsher punishment for them, a study released last week concludes.  The researchers from Stanford University's psychology department suggest their findings may have broad implications for how juveniles are seen and treated in a criminal-justice system that is predominantly white, from lawyers to jurists to jurors.

Foster Care

Bill would help foster youths with school records
The Kansas City Star, Miami, FL – May 31, 2012
Federal lawmakers proposed a bill Thursday that would give social workers better access to school records in an effort to improve education for foster children.

PVCC program helps former foster care students
The Daily Progress, Virginia – May 29, 2012
For students who age out of foster care, homelessness can be a legitimate worry.  A program at Piedmont Virginia Community College called Great Expectations helps lead them to a less-Dickensian life.  The program helps students ages 13 to 24.

Help for foster teens after they leave the system
The Republic, Sacramento, CA – June 1, 2012
For most teens, money is a gotta-have-it, wanna-spend-it commodity. But for foster teens, who often bounce from home to home in their young years, it's far more complicated. — There is no mom or dad doling out a weekly allowance. No one showering them with cash gifts on birthdays or holidays. No one sitting them down for financial pep talks.

Teen Pregnancy

Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative Gathers Stakeholders for Plan of Action
The Sacramento Bee, Philadelphia, PA – May 29, 2012
In early 2011, the Family Planning Council launched a new Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative (TPPI).  The Council is one of only nine organizations in the U.S. selected to participate in President Obama's national Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative.

Fighting US's worst teen pregnancy rate in Miss.
The Boston Globe, Marks, MS – May 29, 2012
With her hair in a ponytail and her smile quick and wide, it's hard to tell that high school junior Donyell Hollins has been pulling all-nighters for most of the semester to take care of her infant daughter.  Her situation isn't unusual in the small Delta town of Marks, home to one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the state that leads the nation in the statistic. But unlike teen mothers in previous decades, 18-year-old Hollins is benefiting from a change in attitude that's paving the way for frank discussions about parenting skills, career goals and contraception.