Child Welfare
Nebraska Senators voted to override a veto from the Governor and pay contractors who have been part of an effort to privatize child welfare in the state, ABC affiliate Nebraska TV reports.
Child Abuse Pediatricians, a growing sub-sect of doctors dedicated to evaluating potential abuse cases and improving outcomes, recommend basic parenting classes to reduce maltreatment and neglect of children, Heathland TIME reports. April is Child Abuse Prevention Month.
A new CDC report shows that autism spectrum disorders in children around the U.S. have increased, with one in 88 eight-year-olds diagnosed with the disorder, the Juvenile Justice Information Exchange reports*.
Education/Jobs
A San Diego-area vocational school is facing claims of discrimination and civil rights violations after allegedly banning students and staff from speaking Spanish in their free time, reports NBC San Diego.
Education advocates in Tennessee are waging a last-minute battle in an effort to scuttle a bill they say would cripple science education by allowing public schools to cast doubt on widely-accepted scientific principles, including biological evolution and climate change, MSNBC reports.
According to the CDC, sex education in U.S. public schools is stagnating. Schools are making little progress in expanding instruction on how to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease, Reuters reports.
The education and health services fields continue to add jobs at a rate above national unemployment, even as unemployment numbers dip, the Pittsburg Post-Gazette reports.
Juvenile Justice
The Ohio Supreme Court struck down a measure that would require juveniles convicted of certain sex crimes to register as lifetime sex offenders, Cleveland.com reports.
Nearly 300 community members in the Bronx neighborhood of New York showed up at a community forum to voice their concerns and opinions on Gov. Cuomo’s Close to Home initiative – a law passed last week aimed at overhauling the way New York state’s juvenile justice system houses offenders – New York Daily News reports.
In Pennsylvania, a bill requiring that juveniles have legal representation in court delinquency hearings is heading to the Governor’s desk after unanimous approval by the state Senate earlier in the week, the (Scranton) Times-Tribune reports.
*The Juvenile Justice Information Exchange is a sister publication of Youth Today.
