Youth Today
Guest Opinion Essay
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1.7KAs some detention centers close, reviving “tough-on-crime” is bad policy
Recent surges in homicides and shootings have prompted some who are opposed to juvenile justice reforms to call for a return to...
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2.6KThe Remix with Karen Pittman: Bringing community educators into classrooms
In his December 3 Q&A with Brian Rinker, Michael Funk discusses California’s historic investment in afterschool and summer programs. Amidst the excitement...
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3.4KWhen relationships come first in schools, success follows
After more than a year of disrupted school for most of the country, we know that meaningful relationships are a powerful part...
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2.5KCalifornia juvenile reforms should proceed, despite probation officer lobbying efforts
As California’s juvenile probation caseloads have plummeted and annual costs of incarcerating a single youth skyrocketed to hundreds of thousands of dollars,...
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2.3KReturning to pre-pandemic activity raises Asian American fears of anti-Asian gun violence
Going on outdoor walks without a mask. Hopping on a Washington, D.C. Metro train without holding my breath. Meeting friends at restaurants...
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3.8KThe forgotten ones: Congress must extend pandemic aid to foster youth like me
Protections that foster youth like me fought for to safeguard us during the pandemic will disappear today, September 30, if our representatives...
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2.7KAs court upholds electroshock therapy at Massachusetts school, opponents continue decades-old fight to end it
For years now, I and other disability advocates have been fighting to end the use of electroshock treatment on youth with behavioral,...
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3.2KVulnerable youth need justice, and legal aid needs community
At ALWAYS, we serve human trafficking survivors and children and young adults affected by homelessness, abuse, and the foster care system. With...
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2.8KHow youth-serving organizations can teach civil discourse
Empowering youth to speak up about issues that matter to them is an important step toward self-awareness and community advocacy. This is...
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4.5KElevating equity and community voice beyond the pandemic
UPDATE: New video added — Over the last eighteen months, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to tectonic shifts in the ways our...
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2.3KDisruptive students, often facing challenges at home and in their communities, deserve acts of “restorative justice”
This is how practitioners of restorative justice approach things: First, focus on building strong, authentic relationships in a community, including schools that...
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3.0KYou can fix most ‘child welfare’ problems by giving poor people money
A concept some of us have been pushing for decades has suddenly become a centerpiece of the child welfare debate: Family policing...
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2.5KPreventing needless punishments, including student arrests, demands new approaches as classes resume
A June 2021 report from the U.S. Department of Education found that, from the 2015-16 through 2017-18 school years, there was a...
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2.7KTo ‘Build Back Better,’ we must invest in our young people of color
As the U.S. begins to rebuild from the devastating COVID-19 pandemic, the Biden administration has signaled that it intends to seize the...
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3.2KSummer offers opportunity to bridge gap in academic and social emotional learning
As America’s education system and economy recover from COVID-19, communities everywhere are turning to summer learning for hope and inspiration in preparing...
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3.3KLead Exposure’s Link to Crime Should Shape Criminal Sentencing, Early Release
The Pure Earth Council and UNICEF reported in 2020 that, globally, one out of three children are exposed to dangerous levels of...
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2.5KLearning Disabled Students Need Better Protections and Supports as Schools Reopen
INSTA-PHOTOS/SHUTTERSTOCK Learners whom I prefer to call exceptional, rather than disabled, get teased more often than many of us care to acknowledge....
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2.9KSummer Learning Does Not Equal Summer School: Let Kids Be Kids
PANAEK PHOTOGRAPHER/SHUTTERSTOCK The outcry has been predictable: To catch kids up and reduce further slide after a year of pandemic-disrupted education, this...
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2.2KYouth Justice Needs Specialized Training of Judges, Lawyers, Court Employees, and Courtroom Language that Doesn’t Demean
“Move the bodies.” That’s what a defense lawyer recently overheard an employee in juvenile court say, as if the young people being...
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4.0KA Case for Better Funding of California’s Community Alternatives to Juvenile Detention and Probation
Supporters of the juvenile justice status quo wrongly claim that community-based organizations are not yet strong enough to serve all youth who...
