Child Welfare
After making the criteria for removing a child from his family tighter, reports Brad Branan of the Sacramento Bee, the county child welfare agency reduced its removals by 40 percent in the course of a year.
A web-based program started by Sacramento County to track the educational developments in the lives of foster children, is starting to spread to other parts of California, reports Katie Baker of the San Francisco Chronicle.
Education/Jobs
In a recent critique of Texas education policy, writes Will Truman of the League of Ordinary Gentlemen, Education Secretary Arne Duncan used some questionable metric: spending and dropout rates.
Speaking of dropout rates: California psychologist and former teacher David Sortino writes in the Press-Democrat that the rate in America’s inner city could be drastically reduced if more attention was paid to connecting juvenile offenders with vocational education.
Juvenile Justice
A story that could become a theme this year: Calum McKinney of DelMarvaNow.com reports that a Maryland county school board has voted to eliminate the school resource officer positions at its middle school as part of a $7.6 million cut.
A bill that would offer some California juveniles sentenced to life without parole a chance to apply for reduced sentences failed last month, but has been given new life with amendments that preclude certain juvenile killers from being covered by the new law, reports Sheila Kumar of the Mercury News.
The Florida Department of Juvenile Justice thinks it can reduce detention time for juveniles with a simple revision of state law, reports NorthEscambia.com.
