Expediting Permanency: Legal Representation for Foster Children in Palm Beach County

This report describes the evaluation of the Foster Children's Project (FCP) of the Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County, Florida, which provides legal representation to children who have been placed in substitute care as a result of child abuse or neglect. The primary purpose of this study was to examine the impact of FCP on the nature and timing of children's permanency outcomes and juvenile court milestones. The study also identifies and describes the program elements or practices that serve to define FCP, and explores the broader impact that FCP has had on the child protective service system in Palm Beach County. Data were drawn from several sources, including juvenile court case files, child welfare administrative records, and interviews with legal and social service professionals. Children represented by FCP were found to have a significantly higher rate of exit to permanency than children not served by FCP. In the main, this difference appears to be a function of much higher rates of adoption and long-term custody among FCP children. Interestingly, the higher rates of adoption and long-term custody experienced by FCP children were not found to be offset by significantly lower rates of reunification. Together, study findings suggest that FCP's efforts to individualize children's court-approved case plans served to clarify the basis of, and thus expedite, court decisions concerning parent and agency compliance with parent's case plan requirements. The study also discusses implications for other jurisdictions seeking to expedite permanency though juvenile court reforms, including the provision of representation to children

The Non-Linear Growth of the Magnetic Rayleigh-Taylor Instability

This work examines the effect of the embedded magnetic field strength on the non-linear development of the magnetic Rayleigh-Taylor Instability (RTI) (with a field-aligned interface) in an ideal gas close to the incompressible limit in three dimensions. Numerical experiments are conducted in a domain sufficiently large so as to allow the predicted critical modes to develop in a physically realistic manner. The ratio between gravity, which drives the instability in this case (as well as in several of the corresponding observations), and magnetic field strength is taken up to a ratio which accurately reflects that of observed astrophysical plasma, in order to allow comparison between the results of the simulations and the observational data which served as inspiration for this work. This study finds reduced non-linear growth of the rising bubbles of the RTI for stronger magnetic fields, and that this is directly due to the change in magnetic field strength, rather than the indirect effect of altering characteristic length scales with respect to domain size. By examining the growth of the falling spikes, the growth rate appears to be enhanced for the strongest magnetic field strengths, suggesting that rather than affecting the development of the system as a whole, increased magnetic field strengths in fact introduce an asymmetry to the system. Further investigation of this effect also revealed that the greater this asymmetry, the less efficiently the gravitational energy is released. By better understanding the under-studied regime of such a major phenomenon in astrophysics, deeper explanations for observations may be sought, and this work illustrates that the strength of magnetic fields in astrophysical plasmas influences observed RTI in subtle and complex ways.Comment: Accepted for publication by A&A. 10 pages, 9 figure

Challenging reductionism in analyses of EU-Russia energy relations

No abstract available

Integrated water resource systems: Theory and policy implications.

Water resource management / Water policy / Irrigation efficiency / Water demand / Leaching / Water use efficiency / Water supply / Evapotranspiration / Models / Water conservation

Scaling-up Early Learning in Ethiopia: Exploring the Potential of O-Class

SDG Target 4.2 identifies ‘pre-primary education’ as a strategy to strengthen school readiness and contribute to the quality and outcomes of education, which is supported by the powerful evidence from evaluation research. The challenge faced by many countries is to deliver the proven potential of well-planned, quality programmes to scale. This working paper summarises Ethiopia’s growing commitment to pre-primary education and reports recent Young Lives engagement with the Ministry of Education in Ethiopia and other partners to support scale-up. Ethiopia’s most recent ambitious targets for early learning have been set out in the Fifth Education Sector Development Programme (ESDP V 2015), with pre-primary classes (known as O-Class) within primary schools being seen as the most rapid route to scale-up. The paper reports on the progress and the challenges in delivering ambitious targets. We report key findings from exploratory fieldwork on two key themes, namely the response of Regional Education Bureaus in planning, financing, management and ensuring human capacity for scale-up; and the potential of Ethiopia’s Colleges of Teacher Education to supply sufficient trained teachers to work with young children, especially in the rapidly expanding O- Classes. The final section draws on parallel experiences of other countries, notably Grade R in South Africa, and reports on six key challenges for scale-up; equity; age-appropriateness; cross- sectoral coordination; capacity building; and research and evidence. Other key challenges go beyond the scope of this working paper, notably the models for governance and financing that can deliver quality early education for all. While Ethiopia’s initiative to scale-up O-Class is a welcome indicator of policy commitment to SDG Target 4.2, we conclude that there is a risk that low quality pre-primary programmes will not deliver on the potential of early childhood education and that children (especially poor children) will be the losers

UK Universities Face their Toughest Test

The School of Oriental and African Studies seemed a symbol of stability when it celebrated its centenary in 2016 by taking over and renovating the University of London’s imposing Senate House building in central London. It was a bold move to lure the best students. But just three years later its future has become much shakier, with its undergraduate intake down 40 percent and a £7m operating deficit. “The competition is brutal,” says Professor Stephen Hopgood, Soas’s international pro-director. “We are small and specialist, and if undergraduate fees are cut, it’s going to be very hard for an institution of our size to survive. It’s never been as tough as this.