USC

More than a thousand foster youth in California will receive a free laptop through a new partnership designed to address the digital divide experienced by those in foster care in rural areas of the state.

Fatima Avelica was riding to school in her father’s car when a traffic stop by immigration officers in northeast Los Angeles suddenly turned her world upside down. In the car, 13-year-old Fatima sobbed as she pointed her cell phone camera at the windshield and shot a video that shows Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers handcuffing and detaining her father, Romulo Avelica-Gonzalez.

In January, California State Senator Carol Liu (D-La Cañada Flintridge) introduced a bill that aims to protect the right of California’s homeless to “rest” in public spaces. Senate Bill 876 would de-criminalize homelessness by ultimately limiting local sanitation and law enforcement agencies’ ability to treat sleeping on the street as a criminal act, and remove and destroy homeless people’s belongings.

Over the past 18 months, The Imprint has published at least 20 stories on the merger of big data and child protection. Other outlets, including Forbes and Bloomberg, have also covered the trend.

A new digital resource created by the Children’s Data Network at the University of Southern California’s School of Social Work aims to gauge the health and well-being of children, families and communities in Los Angeles County through the use of data and expert opinions.

More than 35 percent of adolescent girls in California’s child-welfare system will have given birth before the age of 21, according to a new report from researchers from the Children’s Data Network.

A reckoning is coming in child protection. On December 2, the new and increasingly influential Children’s Data Network partnered with the California Child Welfare Indicators Project to release a slew of studies showing that one in seven of all California babies born in 2006 and 2007 had been reported for abuse or neglect by age five.

Teen pregnancy has always been a costly problem for everyone involved; including the taxpayers. A study released by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy on April 29th, estimates that teen pregnancy costs California taxpayers $965 million a year.

By Jeremy Loudenback For the many current and former foster youth without good access to family planning information, enrolling in the new health care plan may be the best medicine. The partisan bickering continues over the rollout and overall merits of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act  (ACA).