Children are not little adults. We don’t expect a little league baseball player to pitch like a high school player. Young children start at the very basic level with a tee and an adult guiding them on how to hit the ball off of the tee. As they get older, year-by-year, they move up to machine pitch, then coach pitch, and eventually kid pitch. Just as we treat kids differently in sports, a presentation at [...]

Kentucky’s juvenile justice reforms have reached their first year of full implementation and we are seeing positive results in making sure the state’s response matches what youth need to keep them from committing future offenses. Now with implementation well underway, the state agencies can work on ensuring implementation is meeting the standards of SB 200’s requirements for all youth in Kentucky. An analysis by the interim Commissioner of the Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) presented [...]

Kentucky’s communities are safest when we invest in what works best for children.  Right now, the stories and the numbers show that there are disparities in how children of color are treated within the Commonwealth’s systems that care for them.  To begin the process of addressing these disparities, Senator Whitney Westerfield has filed Senate Bill 270. SB 270 ensures that all systems who care for our youth -- education, child welfare, and youth justice -- will [...]