Getting Out of the Red Zone: Youth From the Juvenile Justice and Child Welfare Systems Speak Out About the Obstacles to Completing Their Education, and What Could Help

• NCJ Number: 211632
• Author(s): Sue Burrell
• Date Published: October 2003
• Length: 31 pages
• Sponsoring Agency: Charles Stewart Mott Foundation; Johnson (Walter S) Foundation
• Corporate Author: Youth Law Ctr
• Sale Source: Youth Law Ctr
• Publication Format: Document (Online)
• Publication Type: Program/Project Description
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Downloaded on October 13, 2005.

Annotation

This report presents findings from the Expanding Educational Opportunities for Vulnerable Youth Project, which is intentded to identify barriers faced by youth in both the juvenile justice and child welfare systems in completing their desired education or gaining meaningful employment and provide recommendations on approaches to remove identified barriers.

Abstract

In 2002, the Youth Law Center (YLC) undertook a project, “Expanding Educational Opportunities for Vulnerable Youth.” The objectives of the project are to identify obstacles or barriers faced by young people in the juvenile justice and child welfare systems in completing their secondary education and going on to college or meaningful employment and propose strategies to remove those obstacles. Over a 6-month period from May through October 2002, the YLC convened a series of focus groups. Six groups of youth who had been in the juvenile justice and/or child welfare systems were gathered. This report presents the findings from these focus groups and what was learned. The focus groups confirmed many of the theories about barriers to educational success, as well as other issues. The educational barriers experienced by the youth in the focus groups occurred amidst a staggering amount of disruption, deprivation, negative peer influence, and abuse in other parts of their lives. The youths’ concerns were organized into and presented in predominant themes: disruption in educational placements, suspension/expulsion, quality of the educational program, lack of support, the need for information/advocacy, financial challenges in moving ahead, planning for employment, going to college, other needs for self-sufficiency, and the importance of attitudes. Strategies for eliminating these barriers are presented and discussed and clustered around four themes: (1) stability of educational placement; (2) educational rights and opportunities; (3) advocacy and cross-system liaisons; and (4) quality of educational programming. Appendixes 1-3