This Week's News: Youth in Transition

Education

Job Shadow Event part of $100 Million effort by AT&T and Junior Achievement to help reduce high school drop-out rate
Milwaukee Courier, Milwaukee, WI – November 25, 2011
Milwaukee high school students learned about the importance of staying in school from Representative JoCasta Zamarripa (D-Milwaukee) and local AT&T employees as part of a day-long Junior Achievement (JA) job shadowing event.

Detroit Tackles Dropout Crisis By Engaging Students, Parents
PBS Newshour, Detroit, MI – November 25, 2011
Over the next 18 months, the NewsHour and other public media partners are examining the consequences of, and solutions for, one of this country's most pressing education issues. The project is called American Graduate. Tonight, a look at Detroit, where four out of 10 children don't graduate.

Cash-strapped school districts struggle to improve access to higher education for students
MLive.com, Bloomingdale, MI – November 27, 2011
Ask a classroom of seventh-graders at Bloomingdale Middle School how many intend to go to college, and every hand in the room flies up.

Juvenile Justice

Right on Crime and the Conservative Focus on Juvenile Justice
Juvenile Justice Information Exchange, Texas – November 25, 2011
For years, many people have considered juvenile justice reform a dyed-blue plank in the liberal platform. However, deep in the heart of the red state of Texas, one conservative organization has adopted the issue as a major policy concern heading into the 2012 election season.

Taylor County youth to be tried as adults now won't necessarily be jailed with adults 
Reporter News, Texas – November 26, 2011
In 29 states a loophole in a federal law allows juveniles facing prosecution as adults to be kept in county jails instead of juvenile detention facilities, possibly placing them in cells with hardened criminals. But in Texas, a new law passed by the Legislature allows district judges to order juveniles certified to be tried as adults to be held at either a juvenile facility or a county jail.

Foster Care

Governor extends benefits to foster kids who "age out"
NPR Michigan Radio, Michigan – November 22, 2011
Governor Rick Snyder signed a law today to extend benefits for children who grew up in foster care after they turn 18 years old. The new law will allow foster kids to continue to receive a housing subsidy and health coverage until the age of 21, and to continue to work with foster care caseworkers.

Agency helps woman with rough childhood live on her own
Sun Sentinel, Coconut Creek, FL – November 24, 2011
There's toast left in the toaster, smiling faces of young people displayed in the picture frames in the living room.  None of it belongs to Danielle St. Hillaire. It's not her house anymore, this two-story in a row of 11 others tucked away in the SOS Children's Villages property in Coconut Creek.

Holidays can be difficult for ex-foster students
The Fresno Bee, Fresno, CA – November 23, 2011
Richard Alonso-Lazaro was accepted to Fresno State when he graduated high school. But as a young man aging out of foster care, he ended up homeless and unable to pursue college. He spent many holidays on the streets. But college programs and community organizations in Fresno have helped diminish that hardship.

Teen Pregnancy

Social media, reality TV could help reduce teen pregnancies
The Independent Florida Alligator – November 23, 2011
Thank Maci, Farrah and the other stars of MTV's "Teen Mom" - they may be the reason teen pregnancy rates are decreasing.  According to a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, teen birth rates in the U.S. dropped last year to the lowest they have been in about 70 years.

Voices for Illinois Children fights for the most vulnerable
Chicago Tribune, Illinois – November 24, 2011
With college, two jobs and her young son to care for, Jessica Olague does not give much thought to the goings-on in the Illinois Legislature or the impact child advocates in Springfield might have on her life. But the programs Olague credits with her success are the result of efforts by child advocates, including those with the Chicago-based nonprofit Voices for Illinois Children.