The Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Ga.

Keeping Teens Summer Safe, a Resource Guide from the CDC

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Extra time behind the wheel, long days at the lake and added exposure to the sun are just a few of the hazards kids and teens face as summer officially grabs hold. Unfortunately not everyone gets the summer months off. Parents are left to pick up the slack and still put in their 40 hours each week to pay the bills. So how do you keep your kids safe and the boss happy at the same time? The Centers for Disease Control has made available a wealth of resources for parents asking themselves that very question.

Back in a snap? | Week in Review | July 8, 2011

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It's Official: Key Juvenile Focused Bills Now Law in Georgia

Senate Passes Bill Stripping Confirmation Requirement for Juvenile Justice Positions

Young, Homeless and Enslaved by the Freedom of the Rails

States respond with hodgepodge of juvenile justice cuts

Like Most Other States, Oklahoma Programs for At-Risk Students Grapple with Budget Cuts

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Like many state-run juvenile programs across the nation Oklahoma’s alternative education and at-risk student initiatives have had to deal with the realities of budget cuts following the start of the fiscal year on July 1. Times are tough everywhere, and in some states tougher then in others. But a glimpse at the specific cutbacks in the Sooner State can give one a sense of just what kind of pain supporters and participants of some crucial programs are in for. Gone is 4.7 percent of funding for alternative schools, a combined $385,000 from Tulsa alternative programs, and $1.2 million from the Oklahoma Technical Assistance Center. For principal Amie Hardy of the Jenks Alternative Center the most devastating blow wasn’t the 4.7 percent budget reduction, she told NewsOK, but rather the loss of the statewide evaluator that pushed the school’s alternative programs to be their best.

Benjamin Chambers Interviews Gordon Bazemore: How to Tell if Your Community is Really Doing Restorative Justice

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What's one of the biggest drivers pushing kids into the juvenile justice system these days? Schools. Schools often suspend or expel youth who misbehave, ostensibly to maintain order. Unfortunately, an analysis of 30 years of data on middle school expulsions and suspensions issued last year by the Southern Poverty Law Center found that the sanctions were unfair and ineffective. So what can be done?

Juvenile Reforms Still Needed in Chicago, Advocates Say

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Juvenile advocates and researchers in Illinois came together for a one-day workshop to discuss juvenile arrest data from the Austin and Lawndale neighborhoods of Chicago along with the alternatives to incarceration for juvenile offenders. Austin, Chicago’s largest neighborhood by population, ranked third in total juvenile arrests in 2010. The number of kids under the age of 17 arrested in Chicago has dropped in recent years, according to a report released by the First Defense Legal Aid and Project NIA during the seminar. But advocates say the system hasn’t changed enough and continues to disserve kids on the west side of the city, especially African Americans. In 2008 African Americans accounted for 78 percent of juvenile arrests in the city of Chicago, Hispanics for 18 percent and whites for just 3.5 percent, according to the same report.

Cherie Miller On Deadbeat Dads, their Children and the Cost to Society

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For 17 years I was married and living in a beautiful home in Wheaton, Ill., a suburb of Chicago. I was a stay-at-home mom, choosing to raise my three sons, rather than delegating that to a sitter or child care center. I had been successful in constructing an almost perfect life. That’s why it was so devastating when my executive level husband lost his job. His company, a trade association of the savings and loan industry, was a victim of deregulation.

Kids in One Refugee Community Find Solace in Summer Programs

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CLARKSTON, Ga., -- Tha Htoo Klo looked at the crime scene from a distance. The man shot was wearing the same color shirt as his brother. The boy said, “I prayed in my heart this is not my brother, but then the detective came and knocked on my door, and he told me -- yes, my brother was shot.”

Tha Htoo had escaped the grip of the brutal military junta that rules his native Myanmar. He also survived the refugee camp on the Thai border. Tha Htoo, now 29, has put all these dangers behind him, but after he arrived in this community just east of Atlanta in 2008, he found that safety still eluded him.

Massachusetts Bill Targets Assaults within Juvenile Facilities

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Massachusetts lawmakers are outraged following reports that the state’s Department of Youth Services (DYS) refuses to report assaults on staffers by juvenile offenders. A new bill before the Legislature could change all that, according to a report by the Boston Herald. The measure would require  DYS officials to report all assaults on staff members to prosecutors or state law enforcement in order to pursue charges. State Rep. Thomas Golden (D), the author of the legislation, said DYS officials have even tried to convince staff members not to report violent assaults to police. A spokeswoman for the agency said they were not aware of any such instances.