This Week's News:Youth in Transition

Education

Follow-up leads kids to graduate, expert says
Chicago Sun-Times-15 November 2006
Following up preschool with extra hdlp throughout childhood significantly boosts the odds that poor kids will graduate high school and live a crime-free life, a new study by a NoblePrize-winning University of Chicago economist finds. About 65 percent of disadvantaged students who go to quality preschool will graduate high school, the economic model predicts. If support continues as children age, that jumps to 91 percent.

Project to track high school grads through college
Houston Chronicle-19 November 2006
Once students graduate from high school, they often disappear into that massive place we call the real world. It's a frustrating reality for educators, including those in the Houston school district, who must carry out Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra's recent promise to create a "college- bound culture" in the city's schools.


Juvenile Justice

Juvenile Justice:Miss. should not boost plan
The Clarion-Ledger-26 November 2006
A report Wednesday that Mississippi's two juvenile facilities are still not in compliance with a federal court agreement should draw attention of state legislators when they meet in January. Mississippi in May 2005 entered a four-year decree to end a lawsuit by the U.S> Justice Department after abuses were found in 2003.


Foster Care

State struggles to place teens in foster care
Star Bulletin-20 November 2006
A series of Star Bulletin stories about the hard-to-place mixed racial children resulted in at least 15 adoptive families, many stationed here in the military. Fortunately, times have changed. Ethnicity is no longer a barrier to adoptions. But there are problems finding homes for older foster youth who need permanent families just as much as little ones.

The VOICES are still strong
Napa Valley Register - 21 November 2006
One year after founding VOICES-Voice Our Independent Choices for Emancipation Support-a group of 10 former foster care youth has shown the nation, critics, and themselves that so-called maladjusted former foster care kids can take charge of helping their own. VOICES' mission is to be a one-stop connection for foster youth who "age out" of the system when they turn 18. Youth workers guide their peers to find agencies that can help them live in the real world.