L.A. School Police, District Agree to Rethink Court Citations of Students

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This story originally appeared on iWatchnews.org by the Center for Public Integrity. In the wake of critical news reports, Los Angeles school police and administrators have agreed to rethink enforcement tactics that have led to thousands of court citations yearly for young students in low-income, mostly minority neighborhoods. The Center for Public Integrity and the Los Angeles-based Labor-Community Strategy Center each performed their own analysis recently of previously unreleased citation records obtained from the Los Angeles Unified School District Police Department, the nation’s largest school police force. The Center found that between 2009 and the end of 2011, Los Angeles school police officers issued more than 33,500 tickets to students 18 and younger, with more than 40 percent handed out to kids 14 and 10 years old. That was an average of about 30 tickets a day.

More Health Insurance Providers Back Coverage for Adult Children

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WASHINGTON - Three major health insurance companies have announced they will continue to provide coverage to dependent children on family plans until the age of 26 -- a popular part of the federal health care reform law of 2010 -- regardless of how the U.S. Supreme Court rules on the law’s constitutionality later this month. The announcements by United Healthcare, Aetna and Humana have put competitive pressure on other large insurance providers such as the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, WellPoint and CIGNA, which have yet to follow suit. “The speculation is that many customers have come to expect certain measures in their policies and it’ll be hard to take those back,” Devon Harrick, a senior economist at the National Center for Policy Analysis, told Youth Today. But it remains to be seen how long insurance companies keep those provisions as part of their plans, especially if the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (informally called “Obamacare”) or if competitors begin to offer less expensive, stripped-down policies some months down the line, Harrick cautioned. Adults between the ages of 18 and 24 experienced the greatest gains in health coverage of any age group since the passage of the law.

Report Urges State Agencies to Address Growing Kinship Care Needs

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A new report finds that more American children are living under kinship care with relatives or family friends instead of their parents, than a decade ago. The report, published by Annie E. Casey Foundation’s KIDS COUNT project , entitled "Stepping Up for Kids: What Government and Communities Should Do to Support Kinship Families", found that approximately 2.7 million children are currently living with people other than their parents, an arrangement also known as kinship care. The report also found that about 9 percent of the nation’s youth will live under care of an extended family member for at least three months at some point in their childhood. The authors of the report claim that kinship care needs to be addressed by both community and government programs, as many times family members or friends that assume parental responsibilities are hampered by limited income and the legal inability to obtain basic medical services or authorize medical consent for the children in their care. According to the report, kinship care guardians are very likely to be poor, single, older, less educated and/or unemployed and are often unfamiliar with federal assistance programs, such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).

New York Governor Urges State to Decriminalize Low-Level Marijuana Possession

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Last week, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced his support of a change to state law that would decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana in public view. Gov. Cuomo made his announcement at a news conference last week at the state capitol in Albany . Also supporting the legislative change was New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, New York Police Department Commissioner Ray Kelly and New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who said she has plans to pass a resolution denouncing “unlawful” marijuana arrests. Currently, the state’s legislative session is scheduled to conclude on June 21. Last year, New York City police made more than 50,000 arrests for low-level marijuana possession, ultimately accounting for one out of every seven arrests in the nation’s largest city in 2011.

Powerful Tool Shines Light on Secrecy in Juvenile System

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Traditionally, juvenile courts have protected children from lasting stigma and emotional trauma through aggressive secrecy, in contrast to their adult counterparts. But the anonymity provided by the juvenile system is a direct impediment to journalists and others charged with delivering information to the public. But a powerful new tool, published this month by the Reporters’ Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFP), provides a state-by-state breakdown of access to juvenile courts. The report, funded by a grant from the McCormick Foundation, appears in the Spring 2012 issue of RCFP’s quarterly publication, The News Media & The Law. Each state is profiled in detail, describing which juvenile proceedings and records are available to the public and which require special permission.

New Report Finds Effectiveness of Drug Courts

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New federal research is giving momentum to the call for reduced penalties and more rehabilitation for drug offenders – including juveniles – across the nation. A study funded by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) found that alternatives to handling drug cases, such as specialized courts that usher more people into rehab, can sharply drop recidivism rates, scale back on overall crime and produce deep cost cuts in an overwhelmed criminal justice system. The report comes as the nation is in somewhat of a split over how best to handle many criminal cases, including drug offenses. As Massachusetts considers a crackdown on repeat violent offenders, the position by many lawmakers has been to ease drug penalties. In Missouri, legislators passed a bill to create more parity in sentencing for powdered and crack cocaine offenses.

Facebook May Change Rules to Allow Children Under 13

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For the first time, Facebook is considering allowing children under 13 to join the social networking site, according to a story in The Wall Street Journal. But a study last year by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found Facebook is already full of children younger than 13. According to the report, 46 percent of 12-year-olds are already using Facebook despite the prohibition, either with their parents’ permission or by lying about their age. The Wall Street Journal reports Facebook is researching policies and new technologies that will keep young children safe while using the page. Possibilities include giving parents control over their child’s account by linking the parent and child accounts together.

Report Finds Wide Misuse of Prescription Painkillers by Teens

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According to two recently published studies, prescription painkiller misuse by teenagers is on the rise, with as many as 13 percent of the surveyed teens reporting having used the drugs for non-medical reasons. The studies, published last month in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine focused on the non-medicinal use of prescription painkillers, primarily opiods such as oxycontin and codeine, by teenagers. One study conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan analyzed general survey results from more than 7,000 high school seniors, encompassing data from more than 130 public and private schools between 2007 to 2009. According to researchers’ findings, about 13 percent of survey takers self-reported having used prescription painkillers without a doctor’s approval; of those that self-reported non-medical use of such drugs, a majority stated they had been legally prescribed painkillers by doctors for previous medical conditions. Additionally, the researchers found that teenagers who had misused painkillers were much likelier to use other drugs, such as marijuana, or binge drink compared to students that had either taken opiods with a doctor’s approval or had never taken such drugs for any reason. Researchers said that, on average, teenagers began misusing prescription painkillers at either 16 or 17 - much earlier than previous research has indicated, according to the study.

Experts Offer Tips on Preventing ‘Summertime Learning Loss’

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It’s not exactly breaking news that over the course of summer breaks, many children tend to forget lessons they had learned over the previous school year. But according to some experts, “summertime learning loss” could potentially result in major academic problems once classes resume, especially for children with learning disabilities or underdeveloped social skills. Recently, analysts at Florida International University (FIU) released information on how parents could potentially offset “summertime learning loss,” primarily by promoting diversified games and leisure time events - especially those involving math and reading skills - as well as routine social activity. According to FIU Center for Children and Families director of outreach Jessica Robb, the summertime break may prevent children from socializing with others and even lessen their ability to follow directions from other adults, especially if it entails long periods of isolation in the home. Other experts at FIU agree that children benefit from being socially engaged over the break, whether at summer camps or on extended walks with their parents.