CLASP Comments to U.S. Department of Education Request for Information on Strategies for Improving Outcomes for Disconnected Youth

Jul 31, 2012  |  Linda Harris and Kisha Bird

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CLASP applauds the Obama Administration and the leadership of the Office of Management and Budget and the U.S. Department of Education in spearheading the Interagency Work Group on Disconnected Youth. We welcome the role the workgroup can play in providing visibility to the situation of this often forgotten segment of the youth population and in advancing policies that support dropout recovery and the reengagement of youth in high-risk situations. We hope this group can be a catalyst in exploring how federal funding streams-including and beyond those included in the Performance Pilot Partnerships-can be assembled to create robust interventions to put these youth on track to education, career, and life success. Our comments here draw upon CLASP's decade of policy work at the national, state, and local levels related to disconnected youth. We believe our comments in response to the U.S. Department of Education Request for Information on Strategies for Improving Outcomes for Disconnected Youth will serve to inform the development of the Performance Partnership Pilots as well as federal cross-agency policy development and funding decisions that can address our current challenges, develop the human capital needed to fuel our economy, and unleash the untapped potential and talent of the millions of young people who have fallen through the cracks.