Expanding Policies for Educational Opportunities for Vulnerable Youth

About this grant

For the past six years, the Youth Law Center’s Expanding Policies for Educational Opportunities for Vulnerable Youth project has been working to identify and reduce educational barriers faced by young people in the juvenile justice and child welfare systems. During the first phase of the project, the center carried out a series of activities at two sites to build an infrastructure in order to better serve vulnerable youth.Multiyear funding will support the second phase of the project including expanding activities at the two sites and developing an outreach plan for disseminating site findings to stakeholders in and outside of the juvenile justice and child welfare fields. The center will prepare comprehensive reports assessing the effectiveness of reform measures in reducing barriers and other key results and lessons learned and create new models of coordination for advocates, public officials, parents and other stakeholders in providing transition supports for vulnerable youth.Accomplishments during the first phase included researching and analyzing federal and state policies on the educational experiences of vulnerable youth in the foster care and juvenile justice systems; convening a series of focus groups at both sites to identify barriers to education for vulnerable youth and strategies to connect them; and hosting a meeting of participants to discuss best practices, policy options and education supports for youth in the juvenile justice and child welfare systems.