Child Welfare
Ryan Hagen of the San Bernardino Sun profiles a local program created recently to assist youths who have aged out of foster care but still need help.
Fearing an audit over Medicaid use, Virginia’s Halifax County School Board eliminated a school-based mental health program aimed at family preservation, reports Tiffany Hudson of the Gazette Virginian. The program got an at-times tearful defense from teachers, former school staff and guardians for some of the 200 children who had participated since 2008.
Dean Schabner of ABC News reports on an unpopular ruling by a Jacksonville, Fla. Judge to grant custody of a 3-year-old girl to her sex offender father over her grandmother. The offense that led to the father’s offender registration was impregnating the girl’s mother when she was 14 years old.
Just days after an Oklahoma child welfare worker took his own life, his supervisor has abruptly resigned, reports Ann Kelley of The Oklahoman. Both were being investigated in connection with the death of a 5-year-old girl, who the Department of Human Services had placed with her father.
Education/Jobs
Washington Times columnist Catherine Poe addresses what she believes are common myths and inaccuracies used to argue against the DREAM Act, which could put youths in the country illegally on a path to college and citizenship.
Whet Moser of ChicagoMag. Com breaks down the impact of two major variables he argues are affecting teen unemployment: higher minimum wages and the increased participation of seniors in the workforce. Moser includes helpful charts toward the bottom that show the inverse trends in teen and senior employment.
Juvenile Justice
The list of services that will be cut in Connecticut if the state does not strike a savings deal with its major unions includes one of its four detention centers and three juvenile courts, reports Edmund Mahony of the Hartford Courant.
Bill O’Boyle of Pennsylvania’s Times Leader reports that Mark Ciavarella, the disgraced juvenile judge who is awaiting sentencing for his role in the Luzerne County juvenile justice scandal, has been painting houses and doing other home improvement jobs for a living since he was found guilty of racketeering in February.
Darren Nichols of The Detroit News reports that a federal judge has given the ACLU of Michigan permission to go ahead with a lawsuit challenging the state’s practice of sentencing some juveniles to life without parole.
