This Week's News: Youth in Transition

Education

LAUSD Reaches Out To Bring Dropout Students Back To School
CBS2, Los Angeles, CA – September 14, 2012
Members of the Los Angeles Unified School District launched the fifth annual Student Recovery Day Friday morning.  “Our whole community is coming together,” LAUSD board member Steve Zimmer said. “We are not complete without you, we want to know why you left and we want to help you come back.”

Schools come knocking to re-enroll dropouts
Des Moines Register, Des Moines, IA – September 12, 2012
Community volunteers will team up next week with staff from the Des Moines school district to extend a simple, but heartfelt, message to disengaged students: We want you back.

LISD begins 'Expectation Graduation'
NBC11, Lubbock, TX – September 15, 2012
For the third year in a row, Lubbock Independent School District is taking the fight against drop outs to the street. Groups of LISD teachers and volunteers went to the homes of kids who have dropped out of school to try and talk them into coming back.

Juvenile Justice

Families Unlocking Futures: Solutions to the Crisis in Juvenile Justice
Youth Today – September 13, 2012
In 2001, my 13-year-old son, Corey, was sent to what the New York Times called “the worst juvenile prison in the country.”  What crime had he committed that earned him this hellish journey to the Tallulah Correctional Center for Youth in Louisiana? He stole a $300 stereo out of pick up after he smashed out the window with a crowbar. His sentence was five years in one of the most brutal facilities in the United States.  The families of children who are system involved are often thought of as lazy, uneducated, uncaring or worse. But a new report by Justice for Families (J4F) gives us a much different picture of families and relies on substantial data rather than outdated myths and stereotypes.

N.J. court makes it harder to try kids as adults
CourierPostOnline.com, Trenton, NJ – September 12, 2012
A divided state Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that county prosecutors must adhere to a higher standard when they seek to try juvenile defendants in adult court.  The 3-2 ruling by the high court stems from a case in which three juveniles were accused of beating and robbing a Woodbridge man in 2009.

Foster Care

New Social Network Aims to Fill Void Left by Foster Care System
Mashable – September 10, 2012
The Camellia Network, a social network launched over the summer, wants to provide young people who age out of the foster care system with the support and resources of a family.  When foster children turn 18 (or 21 in a few states), the system stops providing them housing if they have not been permanently adopted by a family. This adds up to roughly 30,000 teens and young adults being kicked out of their homes each year, with slim or no resources to get on their feet and begin adulthood.

The Courtyard housing project unveiled
The Journal Gazette, Fort Wayne, IN – September 11, 2012
Three organizations teamed up to propose a $5.2 million facility designed to help stop young adults leaving foster care from ending up homeless.  The Courtyard of Fort Wayne was unveiled Monday before community members, government and housing officials. Under a mostly federally funded project, the 36-unit residence plans to provide housing to young adults who “age out” of the foster care system at 18.

Teen Pregnancy

YWCA to tackle teen pregnancy in Allen County
The Lima News, Allen County, OH – September 10, 2012
After assessing the needs of Allen County, the YWCA of Northwest Ohio is ready to tackle its first issue. It wants to start with teen pregnancy and is committing $100,000 to do so.  “The unanimous vote of the board was that in order to make a great impact in the community, we wanted to start with teen pregnancy,” Lisa McDuffiie, of the Northwest Ohio YWCA, told the Allen County Family and Children First Council on Monday.

Houston-area school districts adopt new take on sex ed
Houston Chronicle, Houston, TX – September 13, 2012
Some Houston-area school districts are shifting away from traditional abstinence-only sex education classes this school year, part of a statewide trend that has prompted concern among some parents that kids are learning too much, too soon about sex.