children out of school in america - University of Tennessee Digital ...

Americans think of themselves as a child-loving
people. This is a myth.
Idolizing youth is not the same as placing societal
priority on ensuring that all children get enough
food, clothing, health care, education and other services
that will enable them to develop and function
fully in American society. As a nation we have
failed to provide every child a chance to a decent
life.
In 1968 the Washington Research Project, Inc.,
was formed to help poor people investigate and
monitor federal programs designed to serve them.
We found many children living in poverty, ignorance,
ill-health and oppression. We also found that
neglected children are not only poor and nonwhite
but come from many ethnic and income groups.
To help policy makers, other adults, and social
agencies understand and better serve the needs of
all children, we formed the Children's Defense Fund
(CDF) in 1973. We are a nonprofit organization
of lawyers, federal policy monitors, researchers, and
community liaison people dedicated to long-range,
systematic advocacy and reform on behalf of the
nation's children. We seek to improve the conditions
of American children through public information,
research, administrative agency monitoring,
litigation, and through technical back-up to local
groups working with children.
In 1970, The Way We Go To School, a report by
the Massachusetts Task Force on Children Out of
School, was released. It estimated that "a minimum
of 4,000 school age children are excluded from the
Boston Public Schools with the likely number rang-
Foreword
ing as high as 10,700."1 The profiles of excluded
children were haunting. We wanted to find out
whether children like these were only in several
particularly troubled cities, or whether being out of
school was a problem of national proportions. That
report sparked this effort.
"Children Out of School in America" is the first
in a series of reports we will issue during the next
several months on conditions of children which urgently
require recognition and correction. These
include problems of (1) children in adult jails; (2)
children of women prisoners; and (3) school and
other children's record keeping practices.
We are prepared to work in cooperation with
policy makers, responsible officials, parents and
local citizen groups to research thoroughly the particular
problems raised in this report and to help
design, implement, and monitor the effectiveness of
proposed solutions.
This report is the result of much effort by many
CDF staff members, and others to whom I am
deeply grateful. Special thanks go to Marylee Allen,
Cindy Brown and Ann Rosewater for their persistence
in completing this project.
Marian Wright Edelman,
Director
1 Task -Force on Children Out of School, The Way We Go
To School (Boston: Beacon Press, 1970), p. 69.