‘I will not fail in life': Unique program helps foster kids stay in school
Get The Gavel
A weekly SCOTUS explainer newsletter by columnist Kimberly Atkins Stohr.
Enter Email
Sign Up
Nova told me COMPASS gives her 'a home base' — a safe place to work, get advice, or take a time-out.
Advertisement
Only 58 percent of Massachusetts foster children
The COMPASS program was adapted from a successful model established 20 years ago by the bryt program, which offers short-term academic support for children returning to school after psychiatric hospitalization. That program is now in 200 Massachusetts schools and 65 schools in other states.
Advertisement
In 2024, the Brookline Center
'We felt the students that are in foster or congregate care are deserving of the same level of clinical, academic, and stability support in a school setting,' Glenn said. The goal is to provide the stability in school that foster children often lack in life, with staff who can coordinate with all the adults in a child's life.
The COMPASS office has walls and a whiteboard featuring a feelings chart, a rainbow flag, and suggestions of constructive ways to think about life. Rita Eliseo, who provides academic support, presides over a few desks and chairs in an adjacent nook. There are nine students currently in the program, with services tailored to each student's needs.
Nova, for example, entered the program behind grade level. Kaitlin Scorzella, a social worker and COMPASS's clinical coordinator, helped her enroll in Framingham's online credit recovery classes. She learns biology and history online at her own pace, while attending in-person classes for ceramics, gym, English, and geometry. She does her online classes and homework in the COMPASS office, where she can focus. If she can't finish an assignment at school, Scorzella prints it out for her. When Nova had a medical absence, Scorzella negotiated with her teacher to exempt her from a midterm. If Nova needs a break from class, she comes to the COMPASS office, and staff will inform her teacher and get her work. It's a place, Nova says, 'to clear my mind.'
Advertisement
Judy Hyatt, a social worker and lawyer who works with DCF-involved kids, said foster children enter school with so many disadvantages — they've experienced trauma, may have moved frequently, and may be in a living situation with little academic support. Many are not emotionally or mentally able to succeed academically without extra support, which an average teacher isn't trained or paid to give.
COMPASS is too new to measure its impact, but early results are promising. Scorzella said the nine students currently in the program had, cumulatively, 224 unexcused absences before joining. They've had just six unexcused absences since, though the data are skewed because two students are new to the program. The number of conduct referrals dropped from 69 among all the students to 11.
The pilot program is funded through the end of next year, and continuing to collect data will be important to determine if the program actually helps students stay in school. If so, it's a model ripe for replication in other communities with large populations of DCF-involved students.
With COMPASS's help, Nova, after failing her first two terms, is on track to pass her third. She loves reading novels by author Colleen Quinn and writing poetry. Scorzella recently submitted Nova's poems to a National High School Poetry Contest. One poem won an award and will be published.
Titled 'Circus Animals,' the poem is a reflection on Nova's life in a group home. It begins:
'Throw me in this cage when I act up
Advertisement
Spray me with your threats and insults
Put me in this place because I am considered
Wild
Fix me up and train me to be perfect and I will not fail in life.'
Shira Schoenberg can be reached at
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Boston Globe
8 hours ago
- Boston Globe
Will Trump's policies kill Massachusetts' life sciences leadership?
Advertisement Although the industry is centered in eastern Massachusetts, there's a statewide benefit from all the tax dollars those businesses and workers pay. Get The Gavel A weekly SCOTUS explainer newsletter by columnist Kimberly Atkins Stohr. Enter Email Sign Up In all, Massachusetts organizations — including universities, research institutes, and hospitals — received $3.5 billion in funding from the National Institutes of Health. Massachusetts-headquartered companies raised $3.26 billion in venture capital funding. Among all drugs in the development pipeline in the United States, 15 percent were being made by companies headquartered in Massachusetts. But actions taken by President Trump and his administration — cutting funding for scientific research and universities, flirting with tariffs, fanning skepticism about vaccines — threaten to devastate the ecosystem. Today, the industry is at a precipice, and uncertainty abounds. Some companies are already feeling the pinch of terminated federal grants, while others are anxious about what might come. Taken together, Trump's policies could force some companies and scientists to take their money, talents, and products overseas. Advertisement Christopher Locher, CEO of Lowell-based Versatope Therapeutics, which develops a platform to deliver vaccines and therapeutics, said he worries the Greater Boston life sciences ecosystem is 'being flushed down the toilet.' For example, Trump is Trump's funding cuts are already having a large impact on some local companies. Part of the problem is the Trump administration isn't only cutting funding, but it's picking which technologies to fund — in some cases apparently based on politics more than science. Take flu vaccines. The Trump administration recently announced a $500 million campaign to fund the development of a universal flu vaccine, which doesn't require annual updates, using technology being worked on But simultaneously, he cut funding for other work on a universal flu vaccine. Versatope Therapeutics got $14 million in NIH funding and spent five years developing a universal flu vaccine. It had approval from the US Food and Drug Administration to begin clinical trials when Trump terminated the contract's remaining $8 million, with the reason given being 'convenience,' Locher said. Trump also Advertisement Company executives say decisions by Trump officials to disinvest in vaccine-related technology — and concerns about whether government will approve new technology — means it's nearly impossible to find private investment funding to replace lost federal dollars. 'We're faced with bankruptcy in the very near future,' Locher said. Ironically, given Trump's stated commitment to bringing businesses back to the United States, one potential option Locher is eyeing is opening a subsidiary abroad. Conducting clinical trials would be cheaper in another country, whether in Europe, Australia, or China, Locher said, and some countries are offering financial incentives to American companies to relocate. Companies also face a potential workforce brain drain. There have been MassBio officials said China has less rigorous — but faster — safety and research protocols than the US. Australia allows a faster timeline for clinical trials. If regulatory approval of medicines is held up because the FDA is understaffed, companies may seek European regulatory approval instead. The loss of talent to foreign countries will be compounded if the pipeline of local university graduates dries up. One draw for life sciences companies to Boston/Cambridge is the presence of elite schools like Harvard and MIT, with their potential for faculty collaboration and skilled graduates. Advertisement Trump is trying to Chip Clark, CEO at Vibrant Biomedicines in Cambridge, said cuts to university research funding both 'shrink the pipeline of great ideas' that form the basis for many biotech startups and translate to fewer available scientists. Clark said the administration's policies 'seem like a deliberate attempt to try to cede scientific leadership to Europe and Japan and Korea and China. ... They will be delighted to capitalize on our talent, technology, and investment capital to make their robust biotech sectors grow and ultimately compete successfully against the US industry,' he said. Don Ingber, founding director of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, said he has postdocs with US visas applying for jobs in Europe, and others who were accepted to work at Harvard but are going elsewhere. 'The fact that places like Harvard and MIT and American universities are magnets for the best and brightest from around the world is what's driven our technology economy and certainly the Boston/Cambridge ecosystem,' Ingber said. 'With this uncertainty, I fear we'll lose a generation.' Ingber, who was forced to stop work on two government-funded projects on drugs designed to prevent injury from radiation exposure, compared administration policies to 'eating seed corn' needed to grow crops. Advertisement Trump's vendetta will undermine one of the most vibrant state economies in the country and set back American science by years. And it's not just eastern Massachusetts that will pay a price; the entire country will. As Ingber noted, it might take years to see the impact of medicines or technologies that aren't developed because of these shortsighted cuts. Editorials represent the views of the Boston Globe Editorial Board. Follow us
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Medical professionals say schools have gotten too political, citing ‘unscientific modes of thinking'
Two medical professionals argued in a new report that "medical school has gotten too political," citing "unscientific modes of thinking." "Medical students are now immersed in the notion that undertaking political advocacy is as important as learning gross anatomy, physiology, and pharmacology," the authors wrote in The Chronicle of Higher Education. Sally Satel, a lecturer in psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine, and Thomas S. Huddle, a professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham's Heersink School of Medicine, cited several instances of political sentiments affecting the medical school industry. They noted that researchers are "promoting unscientific modes of thinking about group-based disparities in health access and status." Ucla Medical School Hit With Class-action Lawsuit For Allegedly Still Using Race-based Admissions Process "The University of Minnesota's Center for Antiracism Research for Health Equity decrees 'structural racism as a fundamental cause of health inequities,' despite the fact that this is at best an arguable thesis, not a fact. (The center was shut down last month.) The Kaiser Family Foundation states that health differentials 'stem from broader social and economic inequities,'" the authors write. Read On The Fox News App Satel and Huddle pushed further by detailing an incident that occurred at the University of California, San Francisco, Medical Center. The institution not only called for a ceasefire in the Gaza war between Israel and Hamas, the authors wrote that staff chanted "intifada, intifada, long live intifada!" which "echoed into patients' rooms." The New York Times reported last summer that the protesters at the University of California, San Francisco, chanting "intifada" consisted of medical students and doctors. Such an incident lays out more deeply the consequences of medical schools prioritizing politics over instruction on professional imperatives, according to the authors. "These doctors were not putting patients first — if anything, they were offending and intimidating patients. They were putting their notion of social justice first," they wrote. The two medical professionals cite other instances where medical schools are steeped in politics, such as endorsing "racial reparations" and instituting "antiracism" training in order to qualify for a medical license in the wake of George Floyd's death. Satel and Huddle offer medical professionals "guidelines" for how to "responsibly" meet patients' needs while leveraging their "professional standing to effect change", including advocating for policies that "directly help patients and are rooted in professional expertise while ensuring that their advocacy does not interfere with their relationships with their colleagues, students, and patients." Medical Schools 'Skirting' Scotus Ruling Rejecting Race In Admissions: Report Satel, a practicing psychiatrist, told Fox News Digital that she is the medical director of a methadone clinic that represents a clinical setting. In response to Fox News Digital's request for comment, Huddle said that his "academic career has been as a clinician teaching how to care for patients while caring for them."Original article source: Medical professionals say schools have gotten too political, citing 'unscientific modes of thinking'
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Pennsylvania Senator aims to codify abortion rights into law with new bills
PENNSYLVANIA (WTAJ) — A Pennsylvania Senator is aiming to protect abortion and women's health rights in the Commonwealth, citing the U.S. Supreme Court's (SCOTUS) decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health as a driving factor. The case was heard and struck down by SCOTUS in June 2022, when Roe v. Wade was overturned. More specifically, the decision concerning Dobbs declared that the U.S. Constitution confers no right to an abortion. Senator Judith Schwank (D-Berks) argued that this decision has led to total or near-total bans on abortion in many states in her newest legislation. Nearly one in three women aged 15 to 44 live in states where abortion is banned or mostly banned, according to Schwank's bill. Because of this, women are being denied 'urgent, and in some cases livesaving, medical care.' 'While we cannot prevent other states from criminalizing abortion, we can protect individuals seeking and providing reproductive health services in the Commonwealth,' Schwank wrote. 'We can take a stance against the use of our criminal justice system from assisting in those prosecutions.' Previously, former Governor Tom Wolf issued an executive order to protect persons seeking reproductive health care services in Pennsylvania and medical professionals offering those services from discipline in other states. However, the executive order needs paired legislation in order to be codified into law, which is what Schwank argued she is attempting to do. There are seven bills within Schwank's package, and they aim to do the following: Prohibit Pennsylvania courts from cooperating with out-of-state civil and criminal cases involving reproductive healthcare services; prevent officials from other states from arresting individuals in Pennsylvania for an abortion-related crime. Prohibit Pennsylvania courts from enforcing another state's judgment for a case involving the provision of reproductive healthcare services. Instruct our healthcare licensure boards not to take adverse action against providers who offer reproductive healthcare services to out-of-state residents. Instruct insurance companies not to take adverse action against providers who offer reproductive healthcare services to out-of-state residents. Protect Pennsylvania's abortion providers' home addresses from public discovery. Protect reproductive health care records from disclosure in Pennsylvania civil actions or criminal investigations. Shield healthcare providers by allowing doctors to request that only the address of the dispensing health care practice be listed on prescription labels, omitting the name of the individual prescriber or clinic. Schwank noted that the measures outlined in her package of bills would ensure that everybody within Pennsylvania borders is protected in their right to access an abortion and the doctors and nurses who provide it are freely able to do so. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
