Report Finds That Fewer Than Half of African American Males Graduate On Time

A new report from the Schott Foundation for Public Education reveals that the overall graduation rate for African America males attending U.S. public schools during the 2007-2008 was 47%.

According to the 2010 Schott State Report on Black Males in Public Education, half of the states in the county have graduation rates for African American males below the national average for students.

To find out how your state is doing, please visit the national map of Individual State Report Cards.

In Ohio, for example, African American male youth are:

• Six times more likely to be expelled
• Twice as likely to be diagnosed with mental retardation
• Half as likely to be entered into gifted/talented programs

The overall opportunities to learn provided for African American male youth in Ohio were determined to be 21% that of other students.

This is a percentage that needs to change.

The Report Summary contains a helpful chart on page 9 that maps out the Conditions for Success vs. Conditions for Failure.

Challenges Facing Transitional Youth - Especially African American Young Men

Hearing this radio interview on NPR, and reading the research below concerns me - especially because of African Americans overrepresentation in foster care.

This is one of many reasons why the Ohio chapter of Foster Care Alumni of America is involved in dismantling the Cradle to Prison Pipeline in our state.

Our young people need better preparation and a network of support.



The Educational Crisis Facing Young Men of Color

• Young men are not persisting in school or achieving at the same academic levels as young women.

• This challenge is most acute for the most disadvantaged men of color. At just about every stage of the educational pipeline, they lag behind minority women in terms of achievement, persistence, and school and college completion.

High Unemployment Rate for African American Youth
• The current unemployment rate for black male youth, ages 16 to 19, is 52%

• Corporate Voices and the Ready by 21 Partnership are working to engage business leaders to create local partnerships within their communities.

Rates of Poverty Growing Across the Nation

Also of note:

• The youth unemployment rate of summer 2009 was the highest on record.
• A record number (3.3 million) of job-seeking young people ages 16 to 24 are unemployed.

Unemployment Rate Highest for Ages 18-19

Facts:

• The national youth employment rate is at its lowest level in 60 years.

• Rates of unemployment are directly related to age.

• Nearly four million of the nation's unemployed are under age 25 - and that number does not include the hundreds of thousands of youth who have simply given up looking.

• According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, young adults between ages 18-19 years old have the highest unemployment rate, at 25.6%.

• The unemployment rate for youth 16-24 years old who have not finished high school is over 30%.
  

In the aftermath of Ohio budget cuts, some counties are terminating the cases of foster care youth when they turn 18 years old, regardless of whether or not that young person has finished high school.

Due to frequent school changes, some of these young people are only in their junior year of high school.

Imagine being declared an independent adult when you are only a junior in high school. Being unemployed. Without family support. Lacking the money to buy food. Unable to afford housing.

For a young woman, there are programs - but only if she becomes pregnant. For a young man, there is only the local homeless shelter or food pantry.

Facts:

• At the very time when our young people are getting ready to launch into adulthood, and share their gifts and  talents with the world, their futures are being short-circuited.

• If that foster care youth had been sheltered by the state for only one or two years longer, they might at least have a diploma and be able to apply for higher education.

The Campaign for Youth is calling for a National Youth Initiative to create jobs for youth to work, while providing them with the wrap-around education, work skills, and supports that they need.

The Ohio chapter of Foster Care Alumni of America is calling for a statewide advocacy strategy to address shortsighted practices that are leading to Ohio foster care youth being pushed out of the nest without sufficient preparation and support.

Health Reform Could Cover 13 Million Uninsured Young Adults

Young adults ages 19 to 29 are among the largest and fastest growing segment of the population without health insurance.

Designing a Website for Youth Emancipating From Foster Care

A valued friend of mine recently asked my insights regarding designing a web page for young people in her state who are "aging out" of foster care. Here is what I shared with her...

Many sites for youth include low-quality cartoons and Clip Art, rather than photographs. It's almost as if the website designers think that young adults are like children. I believe that teenagers can see right through that. I certainly could!

It's difficult to emotionally identify with Clip Art. If I were designing a young website, I would either provide photos of real-life foster care alumni and/or artwork drawn by talented young people in and from foster care, like the example above.

I would also make the content relevant to survival. When we first age out of foster care, we need to survive. That's why I like this Aussie site, because the list of topics listed at the top of the page are relevant to young people.

When I first aged out of foster care, there was a cycle that I experienced in my life. And, I see that same cycle playing out in the lives of many young people today:

The first step is: Isolation and Independence: "I can make it, I know I can! And I won't have to depend on anyone else either. The one person that I can count on is me."

The second step is: Hitting the Wall. Not having enough money to buy food. Getting involved in a dysfunctional friend/lover relationship, and feeling trapped and without other viable options. Being temporarily homeless - and wondering if this experience will last forever...

The third step is: Gotta Survive. I cannot express strongly enough how powerful this impulse is. It testifies to the power of human survival. When you are hungry and don't have food, your stomach begins to speak, louder and louder. Its growls are persistent; they stop for a moment, but eventually return.

That third step is is a doorway of entry for people who truly care and want to make a difference: Talk to me when I've hit the wall. Talk to me when I'm broken. Because all I can do at that point is listen - and, in that moment, I am just desperate enough to listen to you....

When young people emancipate from foster care, it's like a fork in the road:
- They can be empowered - or disenfranchised
- They can learn to see themselves as 'agents of change' or 'recipients of (government) services'
- They can feel powerful or powerless over their ultimate destiny

One facet of every youth page should be a call to action, and a reminder of personal accountability. People of all ages respond to the level of expectations.

And there should be opportunities to 'Band Together' to make that positive difference, both in our own live and the lives of others. None of us succeeds or fails alone.

Who has the authority to define "permanency?"

How the System Defines Permanency
A recent round table of experts, convened by Casey Family Services and the Annie E. Casey Foundation, defined permanency as:

“Having an enduring family relationship that:
- is safe and meant to last a lifetime
- offers the legal rights and social status of full family membership
- provides for all levels of a young person’s development
- assures lifelong connections to extended family, siblings, other significant adults, family history and traditions, race and ethnicity, culture, religion and language.”

These are lofty goals. It’s almost as if a group of people who emerged from a “normal” family looked at everything that they personally had, and said, “Yes, we want foster care youth to have that.” So, they set that as the standard, after taking upon themselves the responsibility to define what that standard is…

Is it realistic? Is it attainable? I don’t know. As a former foster care youth, I found my first “family” in my peers while living in a college dorm. But I did not have the legal rights of full family membership until I was married in 2001.

How Youth Define Permanency
It's important to note that young people in foster care define permanency very differently. When the Urban Institute and the California Youth Connection facilitated focus groups of foster youth to ask them about this issue:

- Some youth referred to permanency as a physical or concrete entity. They said things like: “Staying in one place” and “Not having to move” and “A place to stay until you age out.”

- Other young people said, “No, it’s more than a place to live. It’s a feeling of connection.” They defined permanency as an emotional commitment from other people.

One young man described the concept of permanency as being like a permanent marker; he said, “If you draw on the paper, that mark ain’t going nowhere. The paper may go somewhere or it could be picked up, but the mark ain’t going nowhere.”

That is a great visual. Think about the people who have made an indelible mark upon your life. Not all of them were connected to you by blood, birth or legal contract.

Whose Permanency Is It, Anyway?
Now, I am going to suggest something radical here… I believe that the “experts” and the “professionals” should allow the input of foster care youth and alumni to influence how they measure success in the area of permanency.

What do youth say about adoption, guardianship, reunification with their biological family, independent living programs and aging out of foster care?

During a youth panel at the 2006 Casey It's My Life conference:

1.) Young people differentiated between biological or legal family and chosen family

2.) Youth said that they needed an entire network of connections, and not just one person

3.) Young people didn't want to be viewed as a "failure" if they aged out of the system without being adopted

4.) Teenagers in foster care expressed their need for independence and independent living skills

There Is No “One-Size-Fits-All” Approach To Foster Care
The experiences of young people differ according to the situation. Some find happiness through reuniting with their biological families. Others report being taken advantage of by ‘predatory parents.’

Here are some legitimate fears that young people in foster care express:

1. “Do you just want to close my case, or am I really safe now?” Many young people fear becoming a ‘closed case.’ The rate of re-entry into the foster care system after an initial attempt at reunification is high.

2. “Aren’t I too old for adoption?” Teenagers in United States foster care report that they have learned from past experience that most foster parents are not eager to take teenagers into their homes. They also report their fears that, by being adopted, they might lose access to independent living classes, college tuition assistance and medical insurance.

3. “Why should I take the risk of adoption by a stranger?” One of the horrors of foster care is its unpredictability. Teenagers who have grown up in the system often know what to expect from independent living programs. They anticipate having some power and control over their personal living situation.

Young people interviewed by the Urban Institute said that when they were placed in a group home or foster home, they had opportunities to leave if they did not like it – but “once you are adopted, you are stuck.”

Broadening Our Definition of Permanency
We live in a pluralistic society, where the word ‘family’ can be defined in many ways. Perhaps the definition of permanency from that roundtable was more than just lofty… maybe it was limiting, too.

I would ask the experts: "Is it a nuclear family that we are trying to accomplish, and is anything less a failure? Are we engaging in partisan politics? Or are we trying to lay a foundation that will lead to lifelong emotional resiliency?"

Foster care alumni often report finding their first experience of “permanency” through friendships and mentoring relationships. A FosterClub intern from Michigan reported finding permanency through her involvement with the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative, which she described as being an ‘emotional parent’ in her life.

The way I see it, the choice is simple: We can keep defining what permanency should look like for a young person and forcing it upon them. Or we can listen to the young people themselves.

Because for a researcher, this is an outcome. For a staff person, this might be a job performance issue. But for a young person in foster care, this is their life.

Sources:
Chambers, K., et al. Foster Youth’s Views of Adoption and Permanency. Urban Institute, Child Welfare Research Program, January 2008.
Research Roundtable: Convening on Youth Permanence, Sept. 12-13, 2006.
Sanchez, Reina M. Youth Perspectives on Permanency, California Youth Connection, California Permanency for Youth, 2004.

November is National Homeless Youth Awareness Month

VISIT HOMELESSYOUTHAMONGUS.ORG FOR MORE DETAILS

A Place to Call Home Act

As we approach Thanksgiving, it is important to remember the 3 million young people in the United States who lack safe places to live.

The National Network for Youth is championing legislation to prevent and end youth homelessness.

They posted an action alert on the Youth Policy Action Center asking concerned adults to contact elected officials with the message that every young American needs a place to call home.

For more information on how to speak out for homeless youth, please visit Project Street and learn more about the "A Place to Call Home Act."

Legal representation for young people in the child welfare system

The United States spends one hundred billion dollars each year on the protection of children. There are six million allegations of abuse and neglect annually, leading to approximately 1500 deaths each year.

An estimated 70% of children who enter the child welfare system wind up in long-term foster care until they are legally emancipated. Their childhood is largely spent going in and out of various placements, depending upon what court proceedings determine is in their “best interests.”

The American Bar Association defines a child’s attorney as: "a lawyer who provides legal services for a child and who owes the same duties of undivided loyalty, confidentiality, and competent representation to the child as is due to an adult client."

Children in the child welfare system have a vested interest in their personal safety, as well as a right to be provided with safe living conditions --- and these fundamental liberty interests are separate and distinct from the interests of parents, guardians or the state.

Unfortunately, children in abuse and neglect hearings often do not receive quality legal representation that allows them equal access to justice so that their voices are heard in a court of law.

- In 1967, the Supreme Court first recognized children’s right to counsel during legal proceedings.

- In 1974, Congress passed the Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA), mandating that states appoint a guardian ad litem for children who are subject to abuse and neglect proceedings.

Court-appointed special advocates (CASA) and lay Guardians Ad Litem (GAL) can be valuable sources of support for young people, but they cannot substitute for independent counsel for the child.

- In 2006, First Star conducted a nationwide analysis of child representation laws, which revealed glaring anomalies in the legal representation provided for children.

According to First Star’s National Report Card on Legal Representation for Children, there are glaring anomalies in the legal representation provided for children.

While some locations do a good job, most do not, and the quality of assistance provided for children depends largely upon the zip code in which the child happens to live. In some cases, economically disadvantaged states do a better job than more affluent ones.

Meanwhile, because “Best Practices” are not shared with the vast majority of the country, it is as if they did not exist. Due to a lack of oversight and shared expertise, individual jurisdictions do not learn from the successes and failures of their peers.

Minimal direction by federal statutes has allowed states to interpret the law and construct their own models of practice. The duties and responsibilities of attorneys for children are not clearly defined. States don’t even use the same statutory language.

I agree with the authors of this study, who believe that each state should:
1.) Provide a competent, independent attorney for every child in child welfare proceedings.

2.) Mandate child advocacy training and hold child attorneys accountable

3.) Require that this attorney advocate for the child in a client-directed manner

4.) Give the child notice and allow the child to be present at legal proceedings

5.) Specify that juveniles have the right to continuous counsel by the same lawyer at all proceedings

I share their hope to initiate a national Call to Action, promoting laws to require consistency in providing trained, qualified, client-directed legal counsel to child victims throughout the nation.

We need to identify and highlight Best Practices across the nation regarding legislative, professional, judicial, sociological and governmental behavior towards abused and neglected children.

For more information, and to see how your state measures up, please visit: 

http://www.firststar.org/documents/Final_RTC_2nd_Edition.pdf

Sources:
First Star’s National Report Card on Legal Representation for Children, 2006.
Bob Fellmeth, Child Rights and Remedies, 2002.