This Week's News: Youth in Transition

Education

Some changes are helping high school students prepare for work
The Inquirer, Vineland, NJ – December 31, 2012
The phone rang at 3 a.m., an unnerving noise at a bad news hour.  It wasn't life and death, but it was an emergency just the same. A 22-year-old man enrolled in a Vineland, N.J., program where dropouts can earn high school diplomas while receiving vocational training had a question:  Should he move out of his parents' house and move in with his girlfriend?  Sam Mercado, who helps run a local version of YouthBuild, a nationally lauded program helping dropouts get diplomas and find jobs, spent 90 minutes on the line with the caller.

Increasing Graduation Rate Involves All Ages
Patch, Easley, SC – December 29, 2012
District officials are looking at a variety of ways to keep students in school.  The school board has challenged the district to achieve an 80 percent graduation rate, according to Superintendent Dr. Kelly Pew.  “Obviously we would like 100 percent of our kids to graduate from high school, but the reality is not all of our kids who are going through school are diploma-tracked,” Pew said during a recent meeting between district officials and the Pickens County Legislative Delegation.  “It is a system issue,” she said. “It is a K-12 issue.”

Orfalea Foundation’s REACH Program Recruiting New Students
Santa Barbara Independent, California – December 31, 2012
REACH, which stands for Resilience, Education, Adventure, Community, and Health, works to empower students for lives of purposeful action, continuous learning, and the courageous pursuit of opportunity.  The program welcomes each new group of students with a 25-day wilderness expedition during the summer between their sophomore and junior year.

Juvenile Justice

State sees decrease in incarcerated youth
 Amarillo Globe-News, Texas – December 28, 2012
How times have changed for the Texas juvenile justice system. Five years ago, the number of youths locked up in state-run detention centers was about 4,700. Since then, the number has steadily dropped, and now it is less than 1,500 — more than a two-thirds reduction.  “We’ve come a long way,” said Benet Magnuson, policy attorney at the advocacy group Texas Criminal Justice Coalition. “Thanks to a series of reforms, we’ve taken many kids out of state-run facilities and kept them closer to their homes where they are helped or rehabilitated.”

Foster Care

Copley teen helping youths moving from foster care
West Side Leader, Copley, OH – December 27, 2012
Local Girl Scout Kristin Osborne knows she is fortunate to be in a family with two parents who make sure she has what she needs.  Now, for her Gold Award project, Kristin, 16, is trying to help youths not much older than she is who are faced with starting their adult lives without the support of their parents.

Teen Pregnancy

Reading trouble linked to teen pregnancy in new study
ABC 7, Chicago, IL – December 28, 2012
Teenage girls who have trouble reading may have a higher risk of getting pregnant.  Researchers in Philadelphia evaluated reading scores of more than 12,000 7th grade girls and tracked them over a course of six years. During that time 1,600 of those girls had a baby.  The team found that two-thirds of the girls scoring below average were more likely to become pregnant than average scoring girls.