On a given day, more than 43,000 youths who largely identify as students of color and are disproportionately male are held in residential placement facilities as a result of involvement with the juvenile justice system. More than two-thirds of youths living in placement facilities who participated in a national survey shared aspirations to…

Youth transitioning out of foster care and into adulthood need many supports to navigate the challenges they face. Over the past three decades, federal child welfare policy has significantly increased the availability of those supports. In 1999, the Foster Care Independence Act amended Title IV-E of the Social Security Act to create the Chafee…

The Common Core State Standards present the greatest opportunity in decades to improve the quality of education afforded to all students. Uniformly raising standards across the majority of states and increasing the rigor of assessments sets an ambitious bar of college and career readiness for all students. Furthermore, assessing students against…

The Job Connection, which meets the requirements stipulated in the Family Support Act of 1988, is structured to ensure that needy families with children obtain the education, training, and employment needed to help them avoid long-term welfare dependence. The Job Connection program is administered through Connecticut's Department of Income…