Child Welfare
Oran Yaniv and Rich Schapiro of the New York Daily News run down the details on two child welfare caseworkers in the city who have been indicted in the homicide of Marchella Brett-Pierce, a 4-year-old girl.
Fellow caseworkers took to the court of public opinion over the weekend with a basic message: fire them, but don’t prosecute them.
Rhode Island plans to shave $25 million off the child welfare budget for 2012, and child welfare officials couldn’t be more pleased, reports Lynn Arditi of the Providence Journal. The state is moving toward a system with less out-of-home placements and more in-home services.
Problems with the computer system used by Maryland’s child welfare agency might be creating dangerous holes in the monitoring of children, reports Meredith Cohn of The Baltimore Sun.
Education/Jobs
Michael Moss of the New York Times reports on a Philadelphia school and the push by parents and school officials to curb sugary snacking by students.
A nonprofit college is getting caught up in California’s effort to curb state funds that go to schools where students are frequently unable to pay back their federal loans, reports Matt Krupnick of the Contra Costa Times.
Meanwhile, increased demand at California’s community colleges is keeping many students from accessing classes they need to take in order to get a degree, reports Nanette Asimov of the San Francisco Chronicle.
Loosen the laws and give teens a chance to work, blogs Douglas French on the website of the Christian Science Monitor.
Juvenile Justice
Holly Herman of The Reading Eagle reports that the Pennsylvania Superior Court ruled against two inmates seeking to have life without parole sentences vacated for homicides they committed as juveniles. The appeal of the two men was based largely on the recent ban on life without parole sentences for juveniles convicted of non-homicides, which was imposed by the U.S. Supreme Court.
A California attorney who studied the Luzerne County, Pa. juvenile court scandal said in a law journal article that such a scandal would be unlikely in California, reports Sheena Delazio of Pennsylvania’s Times Leader.
