Education
Nurturing city school helps keep young mothers on track
Chicago Tribune – November 18, 2007
Welcome to the Simpson Academy for Young Women, the city’s lone school dedicated to pregnant and parenting students, where the arrival of a child often collides with childhood itself. The stolid brick building near Roosevelt Road and Ashland Avenue serves 276 girls between the ages of 11 and 18. Attendance and test scores are up; so is satisfaction. While teen birth rates are at an all-time low, nearly 10 percent of all babies in Illinois were born to teens, according to state health officials. Without a high school diploma, the chance of providing a safe and stable home for any of them is slim. Yet, only 64 percent of teen mothers in the state graduate or get a GED, according to the Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health. The advocacy group reported in 2006 that almost a quarter of pregnant and parenting youth in Chicago school said they were “encouraged” to leave. At Simpson, girls receive a different message: Now that you’re expecting, an education is more crucial than ever.
Standardized Tests in College?
Newsweek Education – November 16, 2007
When U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings suggested a year ago that American colleges and universities consider using standardized tests to measure performance, the outrage in academia was loud and swift. Critics worry that No Child Left Behind type of accountability measures are being unleashed on college campuses. But now some influential college leaders seem to have had a change of heart. This week, two big consortiums of public colleges, the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, and the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges, agreed to launch a website that will allow applicants, their parents and legislators to compare undergraduate experiences, costs and eventually – test scores that measure “student outcomes.” Participating colleges will begin administering standardized tests to how much test scores measure writing, analytic ability and critical thinking go up for students between freshman and senior year. The site, call College Portrait, is still being tested but a preliminary version is now online.
Seeking a “Gold Standard” in D.C. Charter Education
Washington Post – November 19, 2007
Now, some charter leaders in the city that is a national epicenter for their movement are planning to take the next step in this sifting process. They say they want to create a “gold standard designation,” to publicly identify for the first time which charters are doing the most to raise teaching quality and academic achievement for low-income students. Ramona Edelin, executive director of the D.C. Association of Chartered Public Schools, likened the initiative to a certification system to show “what high quality really means in terms of children of color from impoverished backgrounds, which is the vast majority of the students charter schools educate here.” National charter school leaders say the idea of certifying their best, already used in California, is likely to spread as the 4,000 U.S. charter schools face a strong pushback from traditional public school advocates. National research show that charter schools on average are no better at raising achievement than regular public schools. But high-performing charter groups such as KIPP, Achievement First, Uncommon Schools, Aspire, YES and Green Dot say they are not average.
Juvenile Justice
California: a leader in number of youths in prison for life
Los Angeles Times – November 19, 2007
California has sentenced more juveniles to life in prison without possibility of parole than any state in the nation except Pennsylvania, according to a new study by the University of San Francisco’s Center for Law and Global Justice. California currently has 227 inmates serving such sentences for crimes committed before they turned 18; Pennsylvania has 433. The study, titled “Sentencing Children to Die in Prison,” also found that the United States has far more juveniles serving life terms than any other country – 2, 387 at present –with Israel running a distant second at 7. In the United States, life terms have fallen disproportionately on youths of color, with black juveniles 10 times more likely than white juveniles to be given a life without parole sentence, the report found. In California, black juveniles are 20 times more likely to receive such sentences.
Juveniles languish in adult jails
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette – November 19, 2007
Laws passed in the mid-1990s to toughen sanctions on youthful offenders have created a backlog of teenagers awaiting trial or serving sentences in adult facilities. At any given time, the nation’s jails house 7,500 teenagers, including many how have not been convicted, according to a study released last week. Liz Ryan, of the Campaign for Youth Justice in Washington, D.C., said, “At a minimum, we shouldn’t do any harm to kids that haven’t been convicted of anything.” Her nonprofit advocacy group looked at government data on incarcerated youths and found teenagers were 36 times more likely to commit suicide in adult jails than juvenile facilities, and they were 34 times more likely to re-offend if they had been tried as adults. Youth made up 1 percent of the incarcerated population, but they made up 21 percent of “substantiated victims” of inmate-on-inmate sexual violence in 2005, the study found.
Juvenile offenders start life over with a crochet hook
The Christian Science Monitor – November 21, 2007
South Portland, Maine – At first glance, stubborn cowlicks and goofy humor are the most unruly things noticeable about the teen-age boys gathered in a late afternoon meeting of the Blank Project at the Long Creek Youth Development Center. The Blanket Project is for those who earn it through good behavior – and once involved, they’re careful not to lose the privilege. Yes, it’s touchy-feely, but the program is about more than making the boys feel good. “It helps the kids build those skills they’ve not been exposed to at all, or have had no opportunity to practice,” says Dan Reardon, a consultant and former CEO of the Bass shoe company who has volunteered 20 hours a week here as a mentor for more than a decade. “To create something from beginning to end, being able to give to their families and communities, talking for hours and hours – those are the social skills that will help make them successful outside. That’s restorative justice – to make everybody whole.” The blankets – dozens of them crocheted, dozens more cut-and-tied fleece – are largely given back to the communities in which crimes were committed. They go to homeless shelters, day-care centers, and retirement homes.
Foster Care
Nebraska wins award for number of foster children adopted
Omaha World-Herald – November 17, 2007
Nebraska won a $336, 000 award from the federal government for getting a record number of foster children adopted last year, state officials announced Friday. The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services helped 456 children into new, permanent families during the calendar year of 2006. Atkinson said several factors contributed to the increase in adoptions. Among them was a directive from Gov. Dane Heineman to find permanent homes for children who had been in foster care for 15 of the previous 22 months. Another factor was the department’s effort to improve its performance on a coming federal review of the state’s child welfare system. The review will look at several measurements related to adoption.
Educator, producer work to open residential school
Mail Tribune – November 25, 2007
A Southern Oregon educator and a film producer have taken steps to establish a residential high school in hopes of improving the lives of the state’s homeless, foster and adjudicated teenagers by teaching them filmmaking. Steve Pine, regional coordinator for career and technical education at Southern Oregon Education Service District, and Sam Baldoni, owner of Inspired Films Inc., hope to launch the Oregon Youth Academy for grades nine through 12 as early as fall 2009. Homeless, foster and adjudicated youth are among the most likely to drop out of high school, Pine said. Dropouts cost society millions in welfare, criminal prosecution, incarceration and lost wages over time, Pine said. “How can we build a future for kids who have had no opportunities, no parenting, no mentoring, who bounce around from foster home to foster home?” “Then they age out. They get pregnant. They’re on welfare. They go to jail. It adds up. What we can do is open an academy and take in 200 to 400 at a time, change their lives and in turn, they can help others.”
Monday, November 26, 2007
Sunday, November 18, 2007
This Week's News:Youth in Transition
Education
Report: States gaming NCLB system
Stateline.org – November 13, 2007
On paper, Alabama last year showed remarkable gains in improving its schools. But a new report claims that Alabama – and a number of states – are manipulating statistics to make their schools appear better than they really are. The report released Tuesday (Nov. 13) by Education Sector, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, D.C., contends that states are gaming the system under the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), the 2002 law that measures states’ annual progress toward getting all students reading and doing math at grade level by 1014. In a ranking based on 11 statistics that states annually report to the U.S. Education Department Alabama jumped to 5th place in the country in how well it appears to be meeting various education measures, up from 22nd place last year. “This didn’t happen because Alabama students learned much more in 2006 than they did in 2005,” the report said. It happened because the state exploited loopholes in the law and set low standards for its statewide test so that more students passed those tests, inflating the state’s record in meeting the law’s benchmarks, according to the report. “Many states did exactly the same things, said the group, which contends Congress needs to close these loopholes when lawmakers rewrite NCLB this year or next.
CPS may get culinary school for dropouts, at-risk kids
Chicago Tribune – November 12, 2007
For many Chicago high school dropouts or those at risk of leaving school, the thought of developing a career in the culinary field can be as foreign as a seven-course dinner at a fancy restaurant. Those thoughts could move a bit closer to home Wednesday, when the Chicago Board of Education is expected to approve plans for the first high school of its kind in the district – which would target dropouts and 11th graders on the verge of dropping out and provide vocational training in a specific career field, in this case the culinary arts. “They are going to offer high school diplomas and take students who may have historically struggled or may have dropped out and really give them the opportunity to graduate, not just with a high school diploma, but with real skills that will help them in the job market,” Duncan said. “It’s a chance for students to have a second crack at a very high-quality education.”
A second chance for Oakland’s dropouts
The Oakland Tribune – November 15, 2007
Oakland – Beginning next year, dozens of Oakland youth who drop out of school will have another chance to continue their education. And they won’t need to return to high school to do it. At a news conference on Wednesday at Laney College, Oakland school district and Laney officials announced an initiative that will allow dropouts to simultaneously earn high school and college credits at the community college – for free. The program is called Gateway to College. It began in Portland in 200 and has since taken root in a network of 18 other community college around the country, including Laney. This will be the first such partnership in California. Laney will receive $350,000 to start the program over the course of three years, but is main funding source is already in place. Normally, when a student leaves high school, the state dollars allocated for their education follow them out the door. But if dropouts sign up for Gateway to College, Laney will receive the same amount of money that would have gone to the school district.
Juvenile Justice
UI center holds sixth annual conference on racial disparities
Iowa Press-Citizen - November 16, 2007
Less than three weeks ago, Iowa Gov. Chet Culver ordered the establishment of the Youth Race and Detention Task Force to address the over-representation of minority youth in Iowa’s juvenile detention centers. Recent reports have also drawn attention to the fact that minority students are more likely to be suspended or expelled from school and be involved in the child welfare system. State and national leaders in the fields of juvenile justice, child welfare, education, health, and family and human services will gather Nov. 28-30 in Des Moines to discuss the disproportionate numbers of minority youth in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems and ways to address the disparity. They will pay special attention to how the issue connects with school systems.
Prof’s study shows deficiencies in law system
The Daily Northwestern – November 13, 2007
Illinois is not fulfilling its obligation to provide defense attorneys to juveniles charged with delinquent offenses, according to a report written by attorneys from the Children and Family Justice Center at Northwestern School of Law and the National Juvenile Defender Center. The report, “An Assessment of Access to Counsel and Quality of Representation in Delinquency Proceedings” cites several Illinois counties where minors are assigned attorneys minutes before – and sometimes, not until – their meeting with a judge. “There is absolutely no way a lawyer has information to effectively represent their client,” said NU law professor Cathryn Crawford, co-author of the report. “There is no information to argue with the judge. The judge is not provided information to make an individualized determination of the case.”
Foster Care
Racial disparities in foster care
The Philadelphia Inquirer – November 14, 2007
Racial or ethnic prejudices, conscious or unconscious – even ignorance can lead social workers to see abuse or neglect where none exists, the experts say. They caution that stereotyping on the part of social workers is just one factor in the racial gap, and probably a small one at that. Other factors – higher rates of poverty, inadequate housing and child care, for example – are believed to be major contributors to abuse and neglect among minorities. Nationally, blacks make up about 15 percent of the childhood population, yet account for 34 percent of children in foster care, according to the GAO. Black children on average stay in foster care 9 months longer than whites. “Bias or cultural misunderstandings and distrust between child welfare decision makers and the families they serve,” the report said, was one of several factors accounting for the gap, as were poverty and lack of access to services. Strategies to reduce the gap include cultural competency programs, creating multicultural teams of social workers, recruiting minority families as foster parents, and relying more heavily on relatives who can step in during a crisis.
President Bush Helps Launch National Adoption Day 2007
PRNewswire – November 16, 2007
Washington – The National Adoption Day Coalition joined President George W. Bush at the White House today honoring the annual nationwide celebration of adoption from foster care known as National Adoption Day. On Saturday, November 17, hundreds of communities in all 50 states will hold courtroom celebrations to finalize more than 3,330 adoptions of children from foster care, bring the total number of finalized adoptions as part of the National Adoption Day activities to more than 20, 000. Right now, there are 114,000 children waiting in the foster care system that are legally and permanently separated from their biological parents. Unless they are connected with adoptive parents they will not only lose the opportunity for family joys as simple as Thanksgiving dinner, but they will also be at an increased risk for being undereducated, unemployed, homeless and/or involved in substance abuse or criminal activity.
Report: States gaming NCLB system
Stateline.org – November 13, 2007
On paper, Alabama last year showed remarkable gains in improving its schools. But a new report claims that Alabama – and a number of states – are manipulating statistics to make their schools appear better than they really are. The report released Tuesday (Nov. 13) by Education Sector, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, D.C., contends that states are gaming the system under the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), the 2002 law that measures states’ annual progress toward getting all students reading and doing math at grade level by 1014. In a ranking based on 11 statistics that states annually report to the U.S. Education Department Alabama jumped to 5th place in the country in how well it appears to be meeting various education measures, up from 22nd place last year. “This didn’t happen because Alabama students learned much more in 2006 than they did in 2005,” the report said. It happened because the state exploited loopholes in the law and set low standards for its statewide test so that more students passed those tests, inflating the state’s record in meeting the law’s benchmarks, according to the report. “Many states did exactly the same things, said the group, which contends Congress needs to close these loopholes when lawmakers rewrite NCLB this year or next.
CPS may get culinary school for dropouts, at-risk kids
Chicago Tribune – November 12, 2007
For many Chicago high school dropouts or those at risk of leaving school, the thought of developing a career in the culinary field can be as foreign as a seven-course dinner at a fancy restaurant. Those thoughts could move a bit closer to home Wednesday, when the Chicago Board of Education is expected to approve plans for the first high school of its kind in the district – which would target dropouts and 11th graders on the verge of dropping out and provide vocational training in a specific career field, in this case the culinary arts. “They are going to offer high school diplomas and take students who may have historically struggled or may have dropped out and really give them the opportunity to graduate, not just with a high school diploma, but with real skills that will help them in the job market,” Duncan said. “It’s a chance for students to have a second crack at a very high-quality education.”
A second chance for Oakland’s dropouts
The Oakland Tribune – November 15, 2007
Oakland – Beginning next year, dozens of Oakland youth who drop out of school will have another chance to continue their education. And they won’t need to return to high school to do it. At a news conference on Wednesday at Laney College, Oakland school district and Laney officials announced an initiative that will allow dropouts to simultaneously earn high school and college credits at the community college – for free. The program is called Gateway to College. It began in Portland in 200 and has since taken root in a network of 18 other community college around the country, including Laney. This will be the first such partnership in California. Laney will receive $350,000 to start the program over the course of three years, but is main funding source is already in place. Normally, when a student leaves high school, the state dollars allocated for their education follow them out the door. But if dropouts sign up for Gateway to College, Laney will receive the same amount of money that would have gone to the school district.
Juvenile Justice
UI center holds sixth annual conference on racial disparities
Iowa Press-Citizen - November 16, 2007
Less than three weeks ago, Iowa Gov. Chet Culver ordered the establishment of the Youth Race and Detention Task Force to address the over-representation of minority youth in Iowa’s juvenile detention centers. Recent reports have also drawn attention to the fact that minority students are more likely to be suspended or expelled from school and be involved in the child welfare system. State and national leaders in the fields of juvenile justice, child welfare, education, health, and family and human services will gather Nov. 28-30 in Des Moines to discuss the disproportionate numbers of minority youth in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems and ways to address the disparity. They will pay special attention to how the issue connects with school systems.
Prof’s study shows deficiencies in law system
The Daily Northwestern – November 13, 2007
Illinois is not fulfilling its obligation to provide defense attorneys to juveniles charged with delinquent offenses, according to a report written by attorneys from the Children and Family Justice Center at Northwestern School of Law and the National Juvenile Defender Center. The report, “An Assessment of Access to Counsel and Quality of Representation in Delinquency Proceedings” cites several Illinois counties where minors are assigned attorneys minutes before – and sometimes, not until – their meeting with a judge. “There is absolutely no way a lawyer has information to effectively represent their client,” said NU law professor Cathryn Crawford, co-author of the report. “There is no information to argue with the judge. The judge is not provided information to make an individualized determination of the case.”
Foster Care
Racial disparities in foster care
The Philadelphia Inquirer – November 14, 2007
Racial or ethnic prejudices, conscious or unconscious – even ignorance can lead social workers to see abuse or neglect where none exists, the experts say. They caution that stereotyping on the part of social workers is just one factor in the racial gap, and probably a small one at that. Other factors – higher rates of poverty, inadequate housing and child care, for example – are believed to be major contributors to abuse and neglect among minorities. Nationally, blacks make up about 15 percent of the childhood population, yet account for 34 percent of children in foster care, according to the GAO. Black children on average stay in foster care 9 months longer than whites. “Bias or cultural misunderstandings and distrust between child welfare decision makers and the families they serve,” the report said, was one of several factors accounting for the gap, as were poverty and lack of access to services. Strategies to reduce the gap include cultural competency programs, creating multicultural teams of social workers, recruiting minority families as foster parents, and relying more heavily on relatives who can step in during a crisis.
President Bush Helps Launch National Adoption Day 2007
PRNewswire – November 16, 2007
Washington – The National Adoption Day Coalition joined President George W. Bush at the White House today honoring the annual nationwide celebration of adoption from foster care known as National Adoption Day. On Saturday, November 17, hundreds of communities in all 50 states will hold courtroom celebrations to finalize more than 3,330 adoptions of children from foster care, bring the total number of finalized adoptions as part of the National Adoption Day activities to more than 20, 000. Right now, there are 114,000 children waiting in the foster care system that are legally and permanently separated from their biological parents. Unless they are connected with adoptive parents they will not only lose the opportunity for family joys as simple as Thanksgiving dinner, but they will also be at an increased risk for being undereducated, unemployed, homeless and/or involved in substance abuse or criminal activity.
Saturday, November 10, 2007
This Week's News: Youth in Transition
Education
For a Key Education Law, Reauthorization Stalls
New York Times – November 6, 2007
The leaders of the Senate and House education committees are signaling that time has run out for reauthorizing the No Child Left Behind Act this year, leaving prospects for rewriting it uncertain during the presidential campaign in 2008. It passed Congress with bipartisan support in 2001 and will remain in effect even without Congressional action. But the administration and Democrats in Congress had repeatedly promised to make important changes to it this year, including some that would alter judging student performance. Despite dozens of hearings, month of public debate and hundreds of hours of Congressional negotiation, neither the House nor the Senate has produced a bill that would formally start the reauthorization process.
More dropouts after exit exam
Los Angeles Daily News – November 7, 2007
Sacramento – The number of California high school dropouts spiked in 2006, the first year serious were required to pass the state’s exit exam to graduate, according to a report presented Wednesday to the state Board of Education. The report’s findings validate the position of exit exam opponents who say the test is hardest on students who do not have access to good schools or good teachers, said Liz Guillen, director of legislative and community affairs for Public Advocates. That applies mostly to poor and minority students, she said. The San Francisco-based law firm has sued the state over the exam and sought alternatives.
Tuning in can stem dropping out
Boston Globe – November 5, 2007
The morning roundup is but one aspect that makes the South Brooklyn Community High School unusual. The staff at the experimental school is charged with getting involved in some of the most personal details of students’ lives, going so far as to show up at the homes of those who fail to report to class. The five-year-old school and more than two dozen like it in New York are this city’s most innovative attempt to remedy a dangerously high dropout rate – a problem that not only wreaks havoc with the students who quit, but with the society that ends up supporting them. In New York, where only half of all high school students graduate in four years, the South Brooklyn Community High School represents a sanctuary of sorts from students’ past failures and fading hopes. The school takes some of the city’s worst students – those who have been chronically truant and struggling academically. Yet, 69 percent of them graduate. If they remained in a regular high school, their chances of graduating would have slipped to 19 percent, according the city’s Department of Education.
Juvenile Justice
Group urges reforms to fight juvenile crime
Times Union – November 7, 2007
Law enforcement officials have called for a complete overhaul of the state’s juvenile justice system. A report, released last week, found that four out of 10 repeat crimes committed by juvenile delinquents could be prevented if reforms were adopted. The average cost statewide in New York to keep a juvenile in custody for a year is $150,000, according to the report. It pointed out that amount of money “would pay for over eight years of room, board and tuition” at the State University in Albany, said Meredith Wiley, a state director of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, the New York chapter of the national organization. “Getting Juvenile Justice Right in New York: Proven Interventions Will Cut Crime and Save Money” found that dangerous young offenders need to be locked up, but too many don’t get intensive interventions to address their aggression, substance abuse and anti-social behavior. Placing other juvenile offenders, who do not need to be detained, in custody is ineffective and expensive, the report said. Community-based rehabilitation programs and special foster care would cut recidivism, crime and costs, the report said.
State must alter system for juvenile sex offenders
Courier-Journal – November 7, 2007
A Franklin Circuit Court judge again has ordered the Kentucky Juvenile Justice Department to abandon a “one size fits all” system it uses to classify and house juveniles who commit sex offenses. Judge Phillip J. Shepherd reaffirmed his earlier decision to strike down the department’s practice of housing minor offenders in a treatment program along with older youths who commit serious sex crimes. The practice violates state law and was not intended by lawmakers, who established a treatment-oriented system based on the child’s needs and the nature of the offense, Shepherd said in an order Thursday. Shepherd’s ruling comes as he is considering a broader challenge to the department’s entire system of classifying and housing youths by public defenders, who argue it funnels too many youths into state juvenile centers when they could be served at home or in their communities.
Foster Care
City’s foster care is faulted
Baltimore Sun – November 6, 2007
Baltimore foster children are still being sheltered at state office building and still missing medical and dental appointments, according to lawyers charged with monitoring a long-standing court decree on care for these children. In a more than 400-page document filed yesterday in federal court, the lawyers say the state Department of Human Resources and Baltimore’s Department of Social Services have persistently failed to comply with a 1988 agreement that called for swift reform in the care of foster children. State officials must respond to the contempt filing, and a federal judge is expected to consider the allegations. Attorneys hope the judge will appoint a full-time monitor who will follow up on the state’s efforts to improve foster child welfare in Baltimore, Such a system has worked well in other states, including Alabama and Utah, they said.
Should foster kids give DNA samples?
News-Journal – November 8, 2007
Daytona Beach – When children are removed from abusive or neglectful parents, an investigator takes their fingerprints and photographs for identification. But what if children, on their way to homes with foster parents or relatives, had to open their mouths and give a saliva swab? The idea of collecting foster children’s DNA is one a task force has recommended the state Department of Children & Families and other agencies consider studying. Some child advocates fear such a step would not only invade a foster child’s privacy, but make him or her feel even more like they’ve done something wrong, as opposed to being a victim. The DCF Task Force on Child Protection contends in a report that DNA is a “more thorough and under certain circumstances, successful technology for positively identifying a person” than fingerprints. The task force is looking at gaps in the current system and ways to improve children’s safety.
For a Key Education Law, Reauthorization Stalls
New York Times – November 6, 2007
The leaders of the Senate and House education committees are signaling that time has run out for reauthorizing the No Child Left Behind Act this year, leaving prospects for rewriting it uncertain during the presidential campaign in 2008. It passed Congress with bipartisan support in 2001 and will remain in effect even without Congressional action. But the administration and Democrats in Congress had repeatedly promised to make important changes to it this year, including some that would alter judging student performance. Despite dozens of hearings, month of public debate and hundreds of hours of Congressional negotiation, neither the House nor the Senate has produced a bill that would formally start the reauthorization process.
More dropouts after exit exam
Los Angeles Daily News – November 7, 2007
Sacramento – The number of California high school dropouts spiked in 2006, the first year serious were required to pass the state’s exit exam to graduate, according to a report presented Wednesday to the state Board of Education. The report’s findings validate the position of exit exam opponents who say the test is hardest on students who do not have access to good schools or good teachers, said Liz Guillen, director of legislative and community affairs for Public Advocates. That applies mostly to poor and minority students, she said. The San Francisco-based law firm has sued the state over the exam and sought alternatives.
Tuning in can stem dropping out
Boston Globe – November 5, 2007
The morning roundup is but one aspect that makes the South Brooklyn Community High School unusual. The staff at the experimental school is charged with getting involved in some of the most personal details of students’ lives, going so far as to show up at the homes of those who fail to report to class. The five-year-old school and more than two dozen like it in New York are this city’s most innovative attempt to remedy a dangerously high dropout rate – a problem that not only wreaks havoc with the students who quit, but with the society that ends up supporting them. In New York, where only half of all high school students graduate in four years, the South Brooklyn Community High School represents a sanctuary of sorts from students’ past failures and fading hopes. The school takes some of the city’s worst students – those who have been chronically truant and struggling academically. Yet, 69 percent of them graduate. If they remained in a regular high school, their chances of graduating would have slipped to 19 percent, according the city’s Department of Education.
Juvenile Justice
Group urges reforms to fight juvenile crime
Times Union – November 7, 2007
Law enforcement officials have called for a complete overhaul of the state’s juvenile justice system. A report, released last week, found that four out of 10 repeat crimes committed by juvenile delinquents could be prevented if reforms were adopted. The average cost statewide in New York to keep a juvenile in custody for a year is $150,000, according to the report. It pointed out that amount of money “would pay for over eight years of room, board and tuition” at the State University in Albany, said Meredith Wiley, a state director of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, the New York chapter of the national organization. “Getting Juvenile Justice Right in New York: Proven Interventions Will Cut Crime and Save Money” found that dangerous young offenders need to be locked up, but too many don’t get intensive interventions to address their aggression, substance abuse and anti-social behavior. Placing other juvenile offenders, who do not need to be detained, in custody is ineffective and expensive, the report said. Community-based rehabilitation programs and special foster care would cut recidivism, crime and costs, the report said.
State must alter system for juvenile sex offenders
Courier-Journal – November 7, 2007
A Franklin Circuit Court judge again has ordered the Kentucky Juvenile Justice Department to abandon a “one size fits all” system it uses to classify and house juveniles who commit sex offenses. Judge Phillip J. Shepherd reaffirmed his earlier decision to strike down the department’s practice of housing minor offenders in a treatment program along with older youths who commit serious sex crimes. The practice violates state law and was not intended by lawmakers, who established a treatment-oriented system based on the child’s needs and the nature of the offense, Shepherd said in an order Thursday. Shepherd’s ruling comes as he is considering a broader challenge to the department’s entire system of classifying and housing youths by public defenders, who argue it funnels too many youths into state juvenile centers when they could be served at home or in their communities.
Foster Care
City’s foster care is faulted
Baltimore Sun – November 6, 2007
Baltimore foster children are still being sheltered at state office building and still missing medical and dental appointments, according to lawyers charged with monitoring a long-standing court decree on care for these children. In a more than 400-page document filed yesterday in federal court, the lawyers say the state Department of Human Resources and Baltimore’s Department of Social Services have persistently failed to comply with a 1988 agreement that called for swift reform in the care of foster children. State officials must respond to the contempt filing, and a federal judge is expected to consider the allegations. Attorneys hope the judge will appoint a full-time monitor who will follow up on the state’s efforts to improve foster child welfare in Baltimore, Such a system has worked well in other states, including Alabama and Utah, they said.
Should foster kids give DNA samples?
News-Journal – November 8, 2007
Daytona Beach – When children are removed from abusive or neglectful parents, an investigator takes their fingerprints and photographs for identification. But what if children, on their way to homes with foster parents or relatives, had to open their mouths and give a saliva swab? The idea of collecting foster children’s DNA is one a task force has recommended the state Department of Children & Families and other agencies consider studying. Some child advocates fear such a step would not only invade a foster child’s privacy, but make him or her feel even more like they’ve done something wrong, as opposed to being a victim. The DCF Task Force on Child Protection contends in a report that DNA is a “more thorough and under certain circumstances, successful technology for positively identifying a person” than fingerprints. The task force is looking at gaps in the current system and ways to improve children’s safety.
Monday, November 05, 2007
This Week's News: Youth in Transition
Education
ECS Launches One-of-a-kind, Nationwide High School Database to Boost Efforts by State Policymakers
EdNews – November 2, 2007
Denver, CO – Today the Education Commission of the States (ECS) goes live with three high school databases to assist state policymakers with questions about International Baccalaureate, student accountability, and student support and remediation. ECS also launches an updated database on promising local reform initiatives at the state and district level from around the country. “These databases address emerging or peaking issues for state policymakers,” ECS High School Policy Center Project Manager Jennifer Dounay said. “For instance, many states are concerned with dropout prevention and how to help young people drop back into the system after they’ve dropped out. The student support and remediation database helps policymakers assess what work is being done across the states to tackle this issue, along with a host of related topics.”
Bridging gaps in colleges is goal
Orlando Sentinel – November 1, 2007
Florida and 18 other public university systems are pledging to increase the number of minority and low-income students who graduate from college. The new initiative –dubbed Access to Success – calls for schools to provide detailed annual reports so the public can gauge progress. Organizers said these reports will make schools accountable and keep attention focused on the goals. The reports also would track graduation rates for low-income students, something that isn’t routinely done, organizers said. Access to Success is a project of the National Association of System Heads, a group of top administrators from higher-education systems across the U.S. and Puerto Rico.
New Small Schools in N.Y.C. Post Higher Graduation Rate
Education Week – October 31, 2007
Small high schools that opened in New York City in 2002 as part of a closely watched secondary school improvement effort there are graduating far more of their students on time than other city high schools, researchers have found. At schools that are part of the city’s New Century High Schools initiative, 78 percent of students graduate in four years, compared with 58 percent at New York City high schools on average, according to the final report of an evaluation by Policy Studies Associates Inc., a Washington-based research group that has been studying the 10-year initiative since it began. The New Century schools enroll unusually high portions of poor and minority students and students with weaker academic skills, Yet in addition to outpacing the citywide graduation rate by 20 percentage points, they also produce a graduation rate nearly 18 percentage points higher then 10 schools with demographically similar students that were chosen by researchers as a comparison group. The study also found that only 3 percent of the New Century high school class of 2006 had dropped out over a four-year period, compared with nearly 15 percent citywide in 2005.
Juvenile Justice
Missouri Sees Teen Offenders as Kids, Not Inmates
NPR – October 30, 2007
The Northwest Regional Youth Center is where Missouri sends some of its most troubled – and troublesome – juvenile offenders. Street thugs from St. Louis mix with gang members from Kansas City and pint-sized, rural car thieves, yet there’s a sense of calmness. It’s part of Missouri’s treatment-orientated approach toward juveniles where lockups are designed to resemble college dorms and offenders are treated firmly, seriously and humanely. The result of Missouri’s focus on rehabilitation is a 7.3 percent recidivism rate. “The basic logic of youth corrections is that if you treat young people like inmates, they’ll act like prisoners,” Krisberg says. “If you treat them like young people capable of being citizens, they’ll much more likely act like citizens.”
Report: Juveniles jailed more than they should be
Daily Southtown – October 31, 2007
Children are routinely denied justice by juvenile courts in Illinois and are jailed when they shouldn’t be, a major study published today says. Kids younger than 17 are inappropriately shackled, locked up and often poorly defended by attorneys who misunderstand their role, the Illinois Juvenile Defense Assessment Project says. The 150-page report- which saw researchers from Northwestern University anonymously interview hundreds of children and juvenile-laws professionals statewide and also takes in courtroom observations and statistical data – says children often are refused rights adults take for granted. Many defense attorneys continue to believe that incarceration in the child’s best interest, forcing kids to plead guilty before the facts of a case have been tested, the report says. Judges in juvenile court tend to discourage the “zealous advocacy’ upon which the system is based. Parents unwilling or unable to pay legal fees also often urge their children to quickly plead guilty, the study found. Other problems cited by the study included overworked, underpaid public defenders, the fact that children usually meet their attorneys only moments before they appear before a judge and the complicated legal language judges and attorneys often used, confusing accused children.
Rhode Island lawmakers repeal law imprisoning teens
Times Argus – October 31, 2007
Rhode Island lawmakers voted Tuesday to repeal a recently enacted law that sent 17-year-old criminal offenders to adult prisons, a flawed cost-cutting step that seemed unlikely to save money and was denounced as unfair by childhood advocates. In a rushed session, the General Assembly decided that 17-year-olds charged with crimes should be sent to Family Court and the State Training School, a juvenile detention facility, overturning a policy that started almost four months ago. Under the law adopted Tuesday, the adult court records of 17-year-olds will be effectively hidden from public view once their cases are closed, making it easier for them to apply for jobs or get federal student loans. But House lawmakers rejected a more extensive repeal backed by the Senate that would have applied retroactively to almost 50 teenagers charged with adult offenses since July 1, when the now-repealed law took effect.
Foster Care
Payments lag for foster parents
Citizen-Times – October 28, 2007
The money North Carolina pays foster parents to care for children covers only about two-thirds of the actual cost, a new study shows. Only one state, Arizona, and the District of Columbia were paying the actual cost of caring for a child, the study found. Nationally, the rate averages 36 percent below what it should be. North Carolina is in the middle tier of states when it comes to reimbursing caregivers for foster children, According to the report, it is among 23 states that must raise rates 50-100 percent to meet parents’ costs; five states would have to more than double their rates. The report, “Hitting the MARC: Establishing Foster Care Minimum Adequate Care Rates for Children,” was released by Children’s Rights, the National Foster Parent Association and the University of Maryland School of Social Work.
ECS Launches One-of-a-kind, Nationwide High School Database to Boost Efforts by State Policymakers
EdNews – November 2, 2007
Denver, CO – Today the Education Commission of the States (ECS) goes live with three high school databases to assist state policymakers with questions about International Baccalaureate, student accountability, and student support and remediation. ECS also launches an updated database on promising local reform initiatives at the state and district level from around the country. “These databases address emerging or peaking issues for state policymakers,” ECS High School Policy Center Project Manager Jennifer Dounay said. “For instance, many states are concerned with dropout prevention and how to help young people drop back into the system after they’ve dropped out. The student support and remediation database helps policymakers assess what work is being done across the states to tackle this issue, along with a host of related topics.”
Bridging gaps in colleges is goal
Orlando Sentinel – November 1, 2007
Florida and 18 other public university systems are pledging to increase the number of minority and low-income students who graduate from college. The new initiative –dubbed Access to Success – calls for schools to provide detailed annual reports so the public can gauge progress. Organizers said these reports will make schools accountable and keep attention focused on the goals. The reports also would track graduation rates for low-income students, something that isn’t routinely done, organizers said. Access to Success is a project of the National Association of System Heads, a group of top administrators from higher-education systems across the U.S. and Puerto Rico.
New Small Schools in N.Y.C. Post Higher Graduation Rate
Education Week – October 31, 2007
Small high schools that opened in New York City in 2002 as part of a closely watched secondary school improvement effort there are graduating far more of their students on time than other city high schools, researchers have found. At schools that are part of the city’s New Century High Schools initiative, 78 percent of students graduate in four years, compared with 58 percent at New York City high schools on average, according to the final report of an evaluation by Policy Studies Associates Inc., a Washington-based research group that has been studying the 10-year initiative since it began. The New Century schools enroll unusually high portions of poor and minority students and students with weaker academic skills, Yet in addition to outpacing the citywide graduation rate by 20 percentage points, they also produce a graduation rate nearly 18 percentage points higher then 10 schools with demographically similar students that were chosen by researchers as a comparison group. The study also found that only 3 percent of the New Century high school class of 2006 had dropped out over a four-year period, compared with nearly 15 percent citywide in 2005.
Juvenile Justice
Missouri Sees Teen Offenders as Kids, Not Inmates
NPR – October 30, 2007
The Northwest Regional Youth Center is where Missouri sends some of its most troubled – and troublesome – juvenile offenders. Street thugs from St. Louis mix with gang members from Kansas City and pint-sized, rural car thieves, yet there’s a sense of calmness. It’s part of Missouri’s treatment-orientated approach toward juveniles where lockups are designed to resemble college dorms and offenders are treated firmly, seriously and humanely. The result of Missouri’s focus on rehabilitation is a 7.3 percent recidivism rate. “The basic logic of youth corrections is that if you treat young people like inmates, they’ll act like prisoners,” Krisberg says. “If you treat them like young people capable of being citizens, they’ll much more likely act like citizens.”
Report: Juveniles jailed more than they should be
Daily Southtown – October 31, 2007
Children are routinely denied justice by juvenile courts in Illinois and are jailed when they shouldn’t be, a major study published today says. Kids younger than 17 are inappropriately shackled, locked up and often poorly defended by attorneys who misunderstand their role, the Illinois Juvenile Defense Assessment Project says. The 150-page report- which saw researchers from Northwestern University anonymously interview hundreds of children and juvenile-laws professionals statewide and also takes in courtroom observations and statistical data – says children often are refused rights adults take for granted. Many defense attorneys continue to believe that incarceration in the child’s best interest, forcing kids to plead guilty before the facts of a case have been tested, the report says. Judges in juvenile court tend to discourage the “zealous advocacy’ upon which the system is based. Parents unwilling or unable to pay legal fees also often urge their children to quickly plead guilty, the study found. Other problems cited by the study included overworked, underpaid public defenders, the fact that children usually meet their attorneys only moments before they appear before a judge and the complicated legal language judges and attorneys often used, confusing accused children.
Rhode Island lawmakers repeal law imprisoning teens
Times Argus – October 31, 2007
Rhode Island lawmakers voted Tuesday to repeal a recently enacted law that sent 17-year-old criminal offenders to adult prisons, a flawed cost-cutting step that seemed unlikely to save money and was denounced as unfair by childhood advocates. In a rushed session, the General Assembly decided that 17-year-olds charged with crimes should be sent to Family Court and the State Training School, a juvenile detention facility, overturning a policy that started almost four months ago. Under the law adopted Tuesday, the adult court records of 17-year-olds will be effectively hidden from public view once their cases are closed, making it easier for them to apply for jobs or get federal student loans. But House lawmakers rejected a more extensive repeal backed by the Senate that would have applied retroactively to almost 50 teenagers charged with adult offenses since July 1, when the now-repealed law took effect.
Foster Care
Payments lag for foster parents
Citizen-Times – October 28, 2007
The money North Carolina pays foster parents to care for children covers only about two-thirds of the actual cost, a new study shows. Only one state, Arizona, and the District of Columbia were paying the actual cost of caring for a child, the study found. Nationally, the rate averages 36 percent below what it should be. North Carolina is in the middle tier of states when it comes to reimbursing caregivers for foster children, According to the report, it is among 23 states that must raise rates 50-100 percent to meet parents’ costs; five states would have to more than double their rates. The report, “Hitting the MARC: Establishing Foster Care Minimum Adequate Care Rates for Children,” was released by Children’s Rights, the National Foster Parent Association and the University of Maryland School of Social Work.
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