NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Eight-thousand children in Tennessee are spending the holiday break with their foster families, and recent efforts at the national and state level are making it easier for them to experience a normal childhood.

The federal Strengthening Families Act, signed into law last year, requires state foster-care agencies to create a system that enables caregivers to authorize participation in typical activities such as field trips and camps.

Michael Leach, director of independent living with the Tennessee Department of Children's Services, says it's an important step forward.

"These young people, they need normal and healthy experiences, healthy relationships," says Leach. "They need to be involved with activities and be with their peers. It brings positive memories."

Tennessee received recognition in a report by the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative, a part of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, because it limits the use of long-term foster care or emancipation from children's parents as the goal for young people in foster care.

Because of that, the state has the lowest percentage of children older than age 9 living in long-term foster care.

Todd Lloyd, senior policy associate with the Annie E. Casey Foundation, says historically the limitations placed on foster children can impact their experience for the long term.

"Some settings could be very restrictive and have policies that don't allow after-school activities or don't allow transportation or even certain rites of passage for adolescents, learning to drive a car, being able to go to the prom," says Lloyd.

Currently, some foster children in Tennessee "age out" of the system at 18, and the Casey report recommends states extend the age to 21 for all. Leach says beyond policy, what is most important is that the needs of children are placed above red tape and concerns over litigation.

"I'm not sure it's a legislative thing or a policy thing, I think it's really a culture thing," says Leach. "Making sure that we're not driven by fear or liability concerns, and we're more driven for what's right for our young people."

Eleven-hundred of the Tennessee children currently in foster care are looking for a permanent home.



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The number of youth held in juvenile justice facilities in California and across the U.S. dropped 75% between 2000 and 2022 - according to a new policy brief from the Sentencing Project.

Researchers say it reflects big declines in youth offending and arrests - and lower rates of incarceration during the pandemic.

Josh Rovner, director of youth justice with the Sentencing Project, said this contradicts frequent assertions by politicians and commentators that youth crime is out of control.

"It's surprising to many people in the country that believe that things are always getting worse," said Rovner, "that believe that this generation of kids is worse than any generation that came before it, when the evidence doesn't back that up at all."

California has been on the forefront of juvenile justice reform.

The state closed the last of its youth prisons last year, moving to a county-based model to keep children closer to family and community-based programs.

The state also banned almost all prosecution of children under age 12, and ended the transfer of 14- and 15-year-olds to adult court.

Rovner said youth are much less likely to re-offend when they are spared incarceration - and instead enter programs that emphasize mentoring, family therapy, and restorative justice.

"Some people argued drops in incarceration would only lead to increases in offending," said Rovner. "The opposite happened. In fact, by locking up fewer kids, offending continued to drop. So successes can build upon successes, but there is still so much work to do."

State data show that the number of youth in California juvenile facilities stood at almost 2,800 in 2023 - a dramatic drop from just over 11,000 in 2002.




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A Grand Island-based organization is offering a diversion program cited in a new report as one of the most effective with at-risk youths.

The intervention program is Multi-Systemic Therapy, or MST, which the Mid-Plains Center has offered for more than 20 years. In The Sentencing Project's report, MST is identified as having contributed to the 75% decline in youth incarceration between 2000 and 2022.

Chase Francl, president and CEO of MidPlains, explained the approach is to involve all of the "systems" contributing to or affected by a youth's dysfunction.

"You can work with the child, great, but if he still has the same peers that are driving this, you need to be working with the family and help them," Francl asserted. "How do you set limits on this? Your child's sneaking out at night; let's look at what that does. Let's look at how it's impacting school performance. Let's be talking with the teachers."

Mid-Plains therapists work in Kearney, Grand Island, Hastings, York and Lincoln. Francl noted youths are typically involved with therapy for 12 weeks, and the program has decreased long-term rearrests by more than 70%.

Josh Rovner, director of youth justice for The Sentencing Project, said it is not surprising incarceration has some of the worst outcomes for young people who get into trouble.

"Among the things that matter most for young people to achieve is to have a positive peer group and to have the support of their parents and other caring adults in their lives," Rovner outlined. "Sending kids away from home into locked facilities provides neither of those things."

Francl added keeping the youth at home is a major goal for the majority of the young people and families they serve.

"Typically, where we get called is, 'This situation's on fire; this is our last chance at putting it out. Would you guys come in and see if you can salvage the situation?'" Francl observed. "If we can't be successful with this, this youth is getting placed out of the home, whether that's a group home, whether that's detention."

The Mid-Plains MST program has had more than 90% of youths remain at home while enrolled, and more than 97% have had no new arrests. Francl stressed although the majority of referrals come from the court system, court involvement is not a requirement. He added he has been told there would be enough youths to fill the program if they doubled their staff tomorrow.


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West Virginia state agencies have failed to collect data on incarcerated youth, according to a new lawsuit filed by the West Virginia NAACP in the Circuit Court of Kanawha County.

Every year, thousands of children appear before a judge and many become entangled in the state's juvenile justice system.

Aleshadye Getachew, senior counsel for Democracy Forward, explained the state passed a law in 2015, mandating agencies to collect data about juvenile justice outcomes to aid policymakers, but she said agencies haven't delivered.

"This data really should have been collected in 2015 when this law was first passed, but it hasn't," Getachew pointed out. "We sent out FOIA requests on behalf of the West Virginia NAACP and what we received was pretty limited."

She added the lack of data is leaving advocates in the dark on whether the state has made progress addressing a crisis of incarcerated youth, particularly those involved in truancy diversion programs and school-related incidents.

According to the state Department of Education, more than 169,000 incidents on school property occurred during the 2022 academic year, with more than 51,000 students referred for discipline.

Loretta Young, president of the West Virginia NAACP, said data is critical for examining racial disparities among students facing harsh penalties, such as suspensions or expulsions, or being referred to law enforcement for minor incidents.

"Because the data collection will lead us to what the problem is, how we possibly can develop community resources along with the school resources, so that children are not going from the school to the pipeline of prison," Young urged.

According to federal data, law enforcement accounted for 82% of all delinquency cases referred to juvenile court in 2019.


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