Child Welfare
Ginnie Graham of The Oklahoman covers the state’s ongoing legal battle with Children’s Rights, a New York-based nonprofit that filed a class action lawsuit against the Oklahoma Department of Human Services. Graham quotes DHS Director Howard Hendrick as saying that the state spends about $1 million a year defending itself in the lawsuit.
By the numbers, Miami-Dade County has the lowest relative need for out-of-home placements in Florida, reports Kelli Kennedy of the Associated Press. But some child welfare officials fear that the county’s low removal rates have to do with ethnic communities who are afraid to call the state hotline and report abuse that might result in a child being taken.
Education/Jobs
The teen unemployment rate was nearly three times the national average in April, reports Randy Tucker of the Dayton Daily News.
Tea Party fervor trickled down into a usually mundane race for a seat on the Clackamas Community College board of directors, reports Nathan Gilles of Oregon’s WWeek.com.
Juvenile Justice
Melissa Holsman of Florida’s TCPalm.com reports on a new policy in the four-county Treasure Coast area that would leave parents open to jail time if they fail to help their child fulfill orders of the juvenile court.
New York City begins in earnest today the effort to secede from the state-run juvenile justice system and handle its own kids from now on, reports David King of the Gotham Gazette.
