Monday, January 28, 2013

This Week's News: Youth in Transition

Education

Colorado "on-time" high school graduation rates increasing
The Denver Post, Colorado – January 25, 2013
On-time high school graduation rates in Colorado increased by 1.5 percentage points in 2012, to 75.4 percent, according to figures released Thursday by the state's department of education.  The state's expectation is that 80 percent of its students graduate within four years. A total of 120 Colorado schools districts, or 65.3 percent, achieved that mark.

More Latinos Are Graduating - Here's Why
ABC News  Univision – January 25, 2013
The number of Hispanic students graduating from high school is rapidly rising.  More than 70 percent of Latino students graduated on time during the 2009-2010 school year, according to data released this week by the Education Department. That's a jump of 10 points in just five years.

High school graduation rate tops 78 percent – highest since 1976
Christian Science Monitor – January 22, 2013
Public high school students are graduating at the highest rate since 1976, motivated in part by grim economic conditions and the need to be competitive in a crowded job market.  More than 3.1 million high school students received their diplomas in spring 2010, with 78.2 percent finishing in four years, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reported Tuesday.

Juvenile Justice

Patrick Calls For Significant Changes In Juvenile Justice Laws
WBUR, Boston, MA – January 27, 2013
Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick is filing legislation this week that would make significant changes to the state’s juvenile justice laws. The governor’s bill follows last summer’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling that said mandatory life without parole prison sentences for juveniles are unconstitutional.

Overhaul proposed for Nebraska's juvenile justice system
Lincoln Journal Star, Nebraska – January 23, 2013
Centers at Kearney and Geneva that house juvenile offenders would be closed and the state would move to a treatment-based system, under a proposal introduced Wednesday by a group of four lawmakers.  Sens. Brad Ashford and Bob Krist of Omaha and Kathy Campbell and Amanda McGill of Lincoln co-sponsored a bill (LB561) Wednesday to reorganize the juvenile justice system to focus on mental health treatment instead of punishment.

Georgetown’s LEAD Conference focuses on Juvenile Justice
Juvenile Justice Information Exchange, Washington, D.C. – January 25, 2013
A conference this week at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. focused on the work of the school’s Center for Juvenile Justice Reform (CJJR).  The Leadership, Evidence, Analysis, Debate or LEAD Conference, put on by the Georgetown Public Policy Institute, brought together representatives of various stakeholder groups, including activists, judges, experts, students and researchers.

Foster Care

Family and Youth Initiative Seeks To Give D.C. Foster Teens Loving Homes
Huffington Post, Washington, D.C. – January 25, 2013
Each year in the United States, more than 100,000 children wait to be adopted. In 2011, less than half of them were matched with adoptive families.  For older children, the likelihood of being placed in a permanent adoptive home is even bleaker: During the same year, only about one-fifth of children 12 and older were adopted.  That’s where Susan Punnett saw a need.  A 15-year veteran of child welfare and social services, Punnett founded the D.C.-based Family and Youth Initiative (FYI) to help match local teens to caring adoptive parents, giving them a place to call home.

Teen Pregnancy

We Are Change launches social media campaign for teen pregnancy prevention
The Augusta Chronicle, Richmond County, GA – January 24, 2013
Teens are reaching out to their peers through social media to help prevent teen pregnancy in Richmond County.  The Youth Leadership Council for We Are Change, a teen pregnancy prevention program funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is sharing information on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr about reproductive health. The social media campaign kicked off Jan. 18 with an online quiz for teenagers.

Monday, January 21, 2013

This Week's News: Youth in Transition

Education

How to Get High School Dropouts Into 'Recovery'? Ideas Bloom Across US
CNBC – January 16, 2013
Cydmarie Quinones dropped out of Boston's English High School in May 2011 – senior year. "It was the usual boyfriend story," she says. "You put so much attention into your relationship ... that it kind of messes up the whole school thing."  Six classes shy of the credits she needed, she thought that she could skip getting a diploma and still find a college that would train her to be a medical assistant.

Schools retaining more students
Shelby Star, North Carolina – January 14, 2013
The number of county high school dropouts decreased by 28 percent last school year, according to an annual state report.  The report from the NC Department of Public Instruction shows 250 Cleveland County students dropped out in the 2010-11 school year and that number fell to 180 students in the 2011-12 school year.

Brookline High graduates working with City Year
Wicked Local Brookline, Brookline, MA – January 20, 2013
Kara Alhadeff, Brad Buillory and Rachel Kaplan, all graduates of Brookline High School, have committed a year to help students in Boston succeed by serving as AmeriCorps members with City Year.

Juvenile Justice

Juvenile justice: Changes made in laws affecting youths
Midland Daily News, Michigan – January 16, 2013
It’s been years in the making, but now some big changes have been made to laws pertaining to juveniles in court.  “The predominant push is the idea that we need to have laws that are geared to juveniles,” Midland County Probate Judge Dorene S. Allen said. “Not use adult laws for juveniles.”

Court eases youth-prison oversight
The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio – January 19, 2013
A federal judge yesterday ended most of his court-ordered monitoring of Ohio’s youth-prison system while ruling that oversight of mental-health services and units for students with behavioral issues must continue.  The decision by Judge Algenon L. Marbley in U.S. District Court in Columbus brings to an end the ongoing court review of numerous issues, such as general education, use of force and dental services.

Foster Care

Bill Aims to Help Foster Kids Aging Out of Care
1011, Nebraska – January 15, 2013
A Nebraska state senator says she has a solution to help foster care youth transition into adulthood.  Sen. Amanda McGill of Lincoln proposed a bill Tuesday that would help 19 and 20-year-old foster care youth find housing, Medicaid and case management assistance.  McGill says young people leaving the foster care system face significant barriers in looking for employment and entering college.

Landrieu bill expected to help foster children
Advocate, Washington, DC – January 16, 2013
Sen. Mary Landrieu said Tuesday that her Uninterrupted Scholars Act legislation can help hundreds of thousands of foster children stay on track in their schools.  The legislation was signed into law on Monday by President Barack Obama.  The new law is intended to fix a loophole that prevented child welfare agencies from seeing the educational histories of foster children because of privacy regulations in the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.

Teen Pregnancy

AL Teen Birth Rates on the Decline
WTVY, Alabama  -January 16, 2013
It's all good news, Alabama is on the right track to continue to lower teen birth rates.
The Alabama Department of Public Health shows back in 2010, there were more than 7000 teen births.  In 2012 that number was in the 6-thousand range.  ”The most significant factor that causes a decrease in birthrate in teens is education. Educations is usually provided by the health department and by any outlying program that can assist in teaching young women about birth control.” Southeast Alabama Medical Center OBGYN John Gordon said.

Monday, January 14, 2013

This Week's News: Youth in Transition

Education

Lumina Foundation Adopts New Tactics to Reach College-Completion Goal
The Chronicle of Higher Education, Washington, DC – January 10, 2013
The Lumina Foundation has announced a new strategic plan, identifying two broad areas of action that it will pursue in order to help the nation increase the number of college graduates.  First, the foundation will seek to spur communities, employers, state and local lawmakers, and higher-education leaders to adopt specific goals and actions to increase the number of students who earn postsecondary credentials.

Guilford County Schools' Dropout Rate Lowest Among Large School Districts
CBS WFMY News, Greensboro, NC – January 11, 2013
If you drop out of school, you're more likely to end up in prison, and on welfare. A&T researchers estimate dropouts cost us about $169 million every year.  But, Guilford County Schools are trying to change that. The district's dropout rate dropped almost 21 percent during the 2011-12 school year, compared to the previous year. Now, the county has the lowest dropout rate among the state's largest school districts.

Joplin High School Focuses on Drop Out Rate
Ozarks First, Joplin, MO – January 10, 2013
Joplin public school administrators say the state's new evaluation system will make the graduation rate significantly more important than it was in the past.  While they add the graduation rate is improving, it's a challenge they continue to work on. The Joplin High School class of 2012 had a 78.5% graduation rate, which falls below the state average.

Juvenile Justice

The Juvenile Justice System in 2013
Corrections.com - January 14, 2013
The year 2013 is upon the criminal justice field with attention on many areas. I selected juvenile offenders to discuss. Yes, there are many issues related to this topic. I selected five (5) emphasis areas.

Growing Movement Toward Localizing Juvenile Justice
Juvenile Justice Information Exchange, New York, NY – January 10, 2013
Not since the opening of the first juvenile reform school in 1886 has our nation’s approach to confining delinquent youth experienced such fundamental and widespread change. From California to New York, states are reducing juvenile placements, shuttering facilities and shifting money and kids to county control. If done thoughtfully, it’s a trend that holds much promise.

Foster Care

Connected by 25 now its own non-profit agency
Fox59 – January 13, 2013
A program that started as an experiment in the Central Indiana United Way has branched out into its own non-profit, breaking a mold set by many non-profit agencies in recent years.  Connected by 25 exists across the country. The program, geared towards youth aging out of foster care, started as an incubated program several years ago in Indiana.

Teen Pregnancy

High schools offer day-care services for teen parents to prevent dropouts
The Washington Post – January 10, 2013
Victoria Perez had her head buried in a textbook as her Northwestern High School technology class studied in silence.  Two floors below, down a hallway where students rarely venture, Perez’s nearly 2-year-old son, Christian, noisily shook a musical instrument while Sandra Cruz, a day-care aide, sang “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”

Monroe County Has Lowest Teen Pregnancy Rate In State
TIU News, Indiana – January 9, 2013

A recent report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation shows Monroe County has the lowest teen pregnancy rate per capita in the state.  For every 1,000 births in Monroe County, 14 of them are to teenage mothers, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control. That is well below that statewide average of 42 births per 1,000.  Gina Forest facilitates a teen parenting support group at Indiana University Health Bloomington.

Monday, January 07, 2013

This Week's News: Youth in Transition

Education

High school graduation rates on the rise in Utah
Daily Herald, Lake City, UT – January 5, 2013
Utah's high school graduation rates went up again in 2012 — the fourth straight year they've increased.  Figures from the Utah State Office of Education show that 78 percent of high school students graduated in 2012. The state's graduation rates have risen steadily since they came in at 69 percent in 2008.

District hopes online program will net diplomas
Recordnet.com, Stockton, CA – January 5, 2013
Some high school students must earn money for their families. Some must tend to children of their own. Some must care for their parents or for siblings. And some simply don't function well in traditional school settings.

Program helps high school dropouts get on track for diplomas
The Advocate, Lafayette, LA – January 2, 2013
While most students in Acadiana are enjoying a holiday hiatus from the classroom, nearly a dozen high school dropouts in St. Martin Parish are working through the break as part of a program that helps them earn their diplomas.

Juvenile Justice

Garden City to host juvenile justice meeting
High Plains Journal, Kansas – January 7, 2013
The Kansas Juvenile Justice Authority is currently undertaking a statewide assessment on the extent to which minority youth are overrepresented in the juvenile justice system. A series of public meetings will be held across the state so that members of the public can have the opportunity to listen to the preliminary results and provide community feedback on these issues.

Foster Care

Congress Passes Key Foster Care Education Bill
The Huffington Post – January 2, 2013
The year 2013 started with both houses of Congress passing a bill focused on improving the educational outcomes of foster youth.  The Uninterrupted Scholars Act (USA), submitted by the bi-partisan co-chairs of both the Congressional Caucus on Foster Youth and the Senate Foster Youth Caucus, was approved in the Senate by unanimous consent on Dec. 17th, and made it through the House on January 1st.

Examining America’s “Foster Care Crisis”
Youth Today – January 3, 2013
Neil Donovan, executive director for the National Coalition for the Homeless, sees a distinct relationship between foster care youth and homelessness.  “There are some who say that the likelihood that someone will become homeless if they had been a part of the foster care system could be as many as 11 times greater than the average child,” he said.

Teen Pregnancy

Childcare for High School Moms
KLFY, Lafayette, LA – January 3, 2013
Lafayette Parish School System is proposing a program that would provide child care assistance and education to teen mothers.  As part of Superintendent Dr. Pat Cooper's turnaround plan, the Teen Parenthood Program would allow expecting and teen parents the opportunity to receive education, on-site child care assistance and lifestyle skills to prepare them for parenthood. After establishing the same type of program in other areas, Cooper said he is a believer in this kind of plan.