California officials will launch a new effort aimed at protecting children by combating student truancy, trauma, human trafficking and education discrimination.
In a letter issued to county officials Thursday, state Atty. Gen. Kamala D. Harris announced that the new Bureau of Children's Justice would particularly focus on foster youths.
Such youths are more likely to drop out, fail the high school exit exam, change schools and suffer from disabilities than their peers, research has shown. The state's revised school finance system has shifted more dollars to help those students.
Youths who have been in the foster care system also make up more than half of children involved in commercial sexual exploitation, according to the state Department of Justice.
[For more of this story, written by Teresa Watanabe, go to http://www.latimes.com/local/l...-20150211-story.html]
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