RALEIGH, N.C. – Discipline practices at some public school systems in North Carolina are preparing students for prison instead of a profession, according to a report released Wednesday by Action for Children North Carolina.

The problem stems from a trend for school systems to involve the juvenile justice system, even for the most mundane discipline problems, instead of dealing with the problem internally, according to Deborah Bryan, the organization’s president and CEO.

"School districts are strapped,” she says. “They're short-staffed already, so it is a challenge already for them to deal with some of these discipline behaviors."

Bryan says once students are in the juvenile justice system, they are four times more likely to drop out of high school, compared with their peers and eight times more likely to end up in jail or prison.

Bryan points out there also appears to be racial disparity when it comes to student punishment.

During the 2011-12 school year, North Carolina public schools issued 258,000 suspensions and three-fifths of them went to black students, who make up just a quarter of the state's population.

Bryan says the data indicates a systemic problem.

"Equity in how children are treated in school is one of the issues,” she says, “and also what resources are available to help them, particularly in the early stages of life, get off to the right start. "

The report recommends the state raise the age of juvenile court jurisdiction from 16 to 18 for youth charged with misdemeanors and establish a task force to examine school discipline practices.



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CLARIFICATION: The Harris Poll survey was commissioned by the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. (4:25 PM EST 11/22/2022)

November is National Adoption Month, and survey results suggest attitudes about adoption are changing. A recent Harris Poll survey commissioned by the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption found that 37% of Americans are considering adoption, which is the highest rate since the survey began in 2007.

More than 1,500 children in Indiana currently are in need of an adoptive home.

Michelle Savieo, adoption program manager for the Indiana Department of Child Services, said some of the myths around adoption include the idea that some children aren't adoptable or that you have to be a perfect person.

"People believe that you have to have this perfect persona to be an adoptive parent, I think anybody can do it if they have a desire to parent and are willing to make a commitment," Savieo said. "Anybody can parent and all children are adoptable, and you don't have to be perfect to do it."

She said other myths include that you have to be married, or young, or that it's expensive to adopt.

Adoption is a life-altering event, and Savieo said all children they work with have had some type of trauma in their lives. This often results in traumatic behaviors or challenges that make parenting more difficult.

Savieo said in 2023 adoptive parents will be required to undergo annual training similar to that required of foster parents.

"In the past, Indiana has not licensed adoptive families, I believe that effective in 2023 we are going to require the same ongoing training for adoptive families that we do for foster families," she said.

She said the agency has learned that ongoing training gives parents skills to identify trauma behaviors as they are happening and avoid perceiving them as an attack.

"With adoptive families, it's really important for them to be able to recognize trauma behaviors, because what we often see is that when the children are demonstrating behaviors, parents become challenged, and when they can reframe that and recognize that it's not an attack on them as a parent, it allows them to kind of take a step back and parent the children differently," Savieo said.


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Across the state, kids say they want more resources for mental health - according to the recently released 2022 Kentucky Kids Count County data book.

More than 15% of Kentucky's children and teens struggled with anxiety and depression in 2020.

Kirsten Yancy is a senior at Maryfield High School in Graves County. She said students are struggling to keep pace with rapidly changing technology and face greater academic and social pressure.

"It just puts a lot of pressure," said Yancy, "because you need to live up to certain standards while also maintaining your own life."

Students also cite concerns over school safety, whether that's being prepared to act quickly and effectively in the case of a school shooting or improving their school climate.

Kentucky kids also say they feel threatened by too many guns in their community. The new data shows firearm deaths among children in the Commonwealth have significantly increased since 2013.

Kentucky Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman said lawmakers understand that schools, especially those in rural areas, are strained for resources to tackle mental health. She said she expects the issue will be a top priority when the state Legislature convenes in January.

"We know that our schools are now taking on so much of the challenges that kids bring with them from home," said Coleman. "And so this was a core piece of that agenda that we are going to continue to work through and work with legislators on through the upcoming session."

Patricia Tennen, chief operating officer of Kentucky Youth Advocates, added that that county-level data provides a snapshot of community resiliency in the face of an unprecedented pandemic and numerous natural disasters.

"When local leaders have that local data on how they're doing," said Tennen, "they can really target and know how kids are faring in their community and what targeted efforts they can do to improve well-being."

Detailed information on more than a dozen measures of child well-being in every Kentucky county can be found at 'kyyouth.org/kentucky-kids-count.'

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With a new legislative session on the horizon and new legislators after the November elections, the Coalition for a Strong Nebraska is bringing policymakers, nonprofits, service providers and state agencies together to find solutions to the most pressing issues facing Nebraskans.

Laurie Ponce, director of the Coalition, said a main emphasis of the gathering will be finding ways to give children the best chance to succeed by keeping kids with their families and away from Child Protective Services.

"We find that kids in the long run do better if they are not put into the system, if they are not made state wards," Ponce observed. "It's about finding resources for communities to offer to families to help them keep their families together."

"Healthy Families, Strong Communities" is a daylong conference set for Dec. 7 at the Nebraska Innovation Campus in Lincoln. It will explore data and economic trends contributing to rural and urban well-being, and ways people can work together toward positive outcomes for all Nebraskans to thrive.

Experts will be on hand to unpack how poverty impacts Nebraska's rural and urban communities, and regional-specific ways to get folks the help they need.

Ponce noted food insecurity, where families do not always know where their next meal will come from, can look different in Omaha than it does in Broken Bow.

"Sometimes it has to do with access," Ponce acknowledged. "There are a lot of food deserts in Western Nebraska, where there is no easy way to get good, healthy food regularly. And that especially affects the elderly in rural areas."

The conference will also feature working models forged by regional collaborations connecting industries with community groups. Ponce pointed to one public-private partnership where a hospital worked with a local collaborative to find employees in a tight labor market. She added there are various obstacles preventing people from landing and keeping jobs which pay enough to not need public assistance.

"And it could be something like child care, or transportation," Ponce outlined. "What the collaborative is doing is being the go-between between the employer and the employee, and helping that employee get past those barriers."

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