Compton

In 2001, California passed the sweeping Foster Youth Bill of Rights into law. The law’s goals were ambitious. It intended both to inform the state’s 63,000 foster youth of the full range of social services available to them as well as to clarify their basic rights in the state’s foster youth system.

Creating a child safety mobile app was not one of the recommendations laid out in the Los Angeles County Blue Ribbon Commission (BRC) on Child Protection’s 2014 report. Instead, it was a recommendation made by a group of people who attended a child protection strategic planning meeting June 11 in Compton, Calif.

By Holden Slattery A young man wearing a spotless suit and a tie walks into the courtroom. He looks confident and poised. He could be a lawyer—only he’s too young. The teenager, Javier, is at the Juvenile Court in Compton, California because of a mistake he made some time ago.

The number of children in foster care in Los Angeles has decreased dramatically from 52,000 to 19,000 in the last decade. That number is back on the rise, due in part to policy changes at the county’s Department of Children and Families.