Recent news

Nationally, nearly half of youth in foster care do not complete high school by age 18 (according to this data sheet). Although many youth in foster care long to go to college, they have lower college enrollment and completion rates than their peers who are not in care. 

Frequent school moves are a big part of the problem. Children in foster care are often bounced from living placement to living placement, typically changing schools each time—sometimes in the middle of a semester. These school moves disrupt students' academic progress and often lead to delayed re-enrollment, missing records, lost credits, and difficulties maintaining relationships with peers and supportive school staff.

Barbara Huggins and Jimmy Wayne, foster care alumni and advocates for change, participated in a rally in Harrisburg, PA on Monday to raise awareness of the 14,000 children in foster care (including 6,292 ages 13 to 21). Both Barbara and Jimmy found permanency and family as teenagers, which made all the difference. “Having a solid home filled with love … changed every cell [in my body],” Jimmy said.

"Nothing about us without us" is an important slogan of foster youth everywhere who work to improve the child welfare system. These youth work hard to ensure that their voices are heard as they plan for their futures and their transitions from foster care.

It is a simple and straightforward message: policies and practices of the child welfare system must be informed by the voices of those most affected by it. Children taken into the child welfare system depend on it for their safety, the meeting of their basic needs, the services their families receive, and opportunities for their futures. Common sense requires that we listen to these youth, who have the most direct knowledge of the system and are most invested in its improvement.

May is National Foster Care Month, and the theme this year is "Supporting Youth in Transition." All month long, we'll be spotlighting important issues for older youth in foster care and providing concrete steps you can take to support them.

In recent years, states have passed harsh public registration laws that punish children while doing little to protect public safety. Many of these laws have been enacted in response to a federal law, the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA), which targets adult sex offenders, but also includes children. Juvenile Law Center has long argued that these laws are misguided. A new, comprehensive report supports our view.

The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences announced today that Juvenile Law Center has been named the Best “Law” Website in the 17th Annual Webby Awards. Hailed as the “Internet's highest honor” by The New York Times, The Webby Awards, presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS), is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet. 

The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS) announced today that Juvenile Law Center has been named the Best "Law" Website in the 17th Annual Webby Awards!

At this year's Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI) Intersite Conference, held in Atlanta on April 16-18, Juvenile Law Center received the "Gloria J. Jenkins Award for Outstanding Contributions to Juvenile Justice Reform by a Community Organization." 

The award recognized our system reform efforts, particularly our amicus curiae briefs to the United States Supreme Court in cases that have significantly benefited juveniles, including Roper v. Simmons, Graham v. Florida, J.D.B. v. North Carolina, and Miller v. Alabama, as well as our ongoing litigation and advocacy work related to the Luzerne County "kids-for-cash" scandal.

Juvenile Law Center, along with colleagues at Open Society Policy Center, PA Academic and Career/Technical Training Alliance (PACTT), Racial Justice Initiative, and Robert F. Kennedy Juvenile Justice Collaborative, has issued federal policy recommendations to the Departments of Education, Justice, and Labor on improving the quality of and access to education for young people in correctional facilities and upon reentry to the community.