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“Since I moved around from school district to school district so often, tracking down all of the paperwork was a huge problem. No one knew when I was graduating … if I had known, I could have applied to college.” — from Casey Family Programs' publication "A Roadmap for Learning"

This quote from a former foster youth is an all-too-common example of the obstacles that these kids face—more than 400,000 youth nationwide, in any given year—in achieving school success.

Imagine being locked in a seven by seven foot cell, with your only window to the world looking out at a brick wall.

You are alone; you have no pen or paper, no books, no audio or visual stimulation. You are often denied clothing or you are provided a 'ferguson gown'—a Velcro-strapped garment that severely restricts your physical movement.

You are occasionally denied sheets or blankets or even a mattress so you won't harm yourself.You are rarely let out of your cell, spending 23 or 24 hours a day there, your only respite a shower. You are denied mental health treatment because you are in isolation, but you cannot be released from isolation until you learn how to better manage your behavior. The drudgery and despair of this monotonous and maddening existence continues almost uninterrupted for nearly seven months.

Imagine you’re only sixteen years old.

For the second time in the last three months, a Pennsylvania judge has ruled that Pennsylvania’s juvenile sex offender registration requirements are unconstitutional. On January 16, 2014, Monroe County Court of Common Pleas President Judge Margherita Patti-Worthington ruled that Pennsylvania's law requiring juveniles convicted of sexual offenses be subjected to lifetime sex offender registration violates their rights under the Pennsylvania Constitution.

The Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare (DPW) has opened for comment its draft application to the federal government regarding the operation of the Medicaid program in Pennsylvania. This application, entitled "Healthy Pennsylvania," includes a plan to impose work requirements and health insurance premiums on individuals between the ages of 21 and 26 who are newly eligible for Medicaid by virtue of their status as youth who have aged out of foster care.