What's on our radar this week
Each week, Juvenile Law Center gathers the latest studies, reports, and headlines from around the country. Here's what we've been reading:
- In New Jersey a 21-county program, NJCounts, are working to reduce the number of homeless families and youth. The program will continue to guide efforts to end homelessness in New Jersey.
- A proposed policy in Oklahoma could eliminate special services for youth in foster care placing many children in jeopardy.
- Due to systemwide lawsuits, Mississippi may become the first state to have its child welfare system put in receivership and run by an outside organization.
- Michigan is one of nine states that automatically send anyone 17 years-old or older into the adult criminal justice system. A new package of bills is looking to change this by raising the age of prosecution of juveniles to 18.
- A set of reform bills in Kansas will look to change the state's juvenile justice system. Among the reforms are plans to divert more low-level offenders away from dentention and to intensive supervision.
- A recent survey has discovered that nearly half of D.C.'s homeless youth are LGBT.
- Recent data from the Institute for Children, Poverty & Homelessness has found that one in nine public high school students in New York City will experience homelessness during their four years of high school, indicating that the homelessness crisis is also dramatically effecting our schools.
- In Florida, a bill that will help streamline the process for juveniles to expunge their criminal records has been unanimously passed.
- Advocates are working to extend foster care coverage to help combat the "aging out" problem affecting foster care youth in Virginia.
Did we miss a big story? Email us at [email protected] with your headline.