More Needs to Be Done to Guarantee Quality Education for At-Risk Youth, Learning Rights Tells House Subcommittees:

Watch Janeen’s Presentation before Congress

Janeen Steel, foreground, preparing to testify before Congress on March 12, 2009

Learning Rights Law Center is a nonprofit legal services organization whose mission is to ensure education equity for all students.  Learning Rights focuses on students in the K-12 school system, including children who are in the foster care and juvenile systems.

“We can’t afford for any of our children or at-risk youth to fall through the cracks. Addressing the educational needs of students from the beginning of a child’s school career is not only economically sound, but it is simply the right thing to do,” said U.S. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY), the chair of the Healthy Families and Communities Subcommittee.

“Families and educators alike are concerned that instead of addressing the individualized needs of children, these alternative schools are pushing students out of school and into the juvenile and criminal justice system.” said U.S. Rep. Robert “Bobby” Scott  (D-VA), the chair of the House Crime Terrorism and Homeland Security Subcommittee.  “The school system has become a gateway into the juvenile justice system through disciplinary policies such as ‘zero tolerance’ that require school suspension, expulsion, and arrest for an increasing number of common student behaviors and rule violations. All students must have a challenging curriculum that will prepare them to pass state standardized tests and in many states allow them to graduate from high school.”

As witnesses explained today, letting at-risk students slip through the cracks poses severe economic losses to society. The economic cost of losing a single student, for example, is $2.2 million over a lifetime.