More Los Angeles Unified students move in and out of juvenile detention than any other school district in the country. After release, their academic prospects have been dismal.
Now a new effort mandated by the state legislature aims to improve the students' chances at graduating high school, but that promise is dependent on a counseling program facing district budget cuts.
For many students in the program, some from foster homes, others with drug problems, counselors serve as the link between the juvenile detention they hope to leave behind and their local schools.
The district's counselors help students re-enroll in school after their release, keep them on track to graduate, connect them with social services and even give them an occasional ride.
When 19-year-old Liliana Flores was in fifth grade, her parents immigrated into the United States from El Salvador. Her family was fleeing gang violence, but it only followed them to Los Angeles.
"I never had a happy home," she said.
[For more of this story, written by Annie Gilbertson, go to http://www.scpr.org/news/2015/...s-to-enroll-thousan/]
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