“Sign up for Chalkbeat Philadelphia’s free newsletter to keep up with news on the city’s public school system. A measure on Tuesday’s ballot could make permanent a small Philadelphia program that monitors quality of life for youth in foster homes, behavioral health treatment, and correctional facilities. The city established the Office of the Youth Ombudsperson in 2022, in response to sustained advocacy by a group of young people who testified to the City Council about how they were harmed by the foster and juvenile justice systems. Ombudsperson Tracie Johnson took her post in April 2023. But because the office was created by an executive order from former Philadelphia mayor Jim Kenney, it can be dissolved by executive order, too. The measure, called Ballot Question 2, would change the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter to make the office permanent. Supporters of the office say that’s an important change because it would allow the office to advocate for more funding and greater investigative power, which could lead to more oversight of the education, health, and safety of young people in residential placements. Since its creation, the office has looked at seclusion policies in the Philadelphia Juvenile Justice Services Center , how facilities can support youth in placement during Ramadan , and created Know Your Rights training for students in foster homes and juvenile justice facilities. It also collects complaints about abuses in residential placement. Malik Pickett, a senior attorney at Juvenile Law Center, was part of the initial advocacy that spurred the office’s creation. That movement came out of a long history of neglect and abuse in multiple juvenile facilities and group homes, he said. “This office is extremely important, because [youth] are in a very vulnerable time in their lives, Pickett said. “Going to residential placements, being separated from your families and your loved ones, that causes real harm in these residential facility placements.” Councilmember Jamie Gauthier highlighted the measure in a video posted in mid-May, in which she interviewed former foster youth and justice-involved youth about the ballot measure. Johnson said she wants to see “corrective action taken when necessary,” and to update outdated policies and staff training. The AFSCME District Council 47 labor union, which represents government workers among others, opposes the measure . The union said the office would have “significant oversight” of departments where its members work, “including independent investigatory authority over employees.” Johnson’s work follows in the footsteps of a city-commissioned Youth Residential Placement Task Force . In 2019, that task force called out deficiencies in services provided to youth in residential placement, including the failure of these facilities to provide quality education. The task force made 19 recommendations, three of which were about educational quality. The task force’s last formal report to the city on facilities metrics and goal progress was published in 2023. Johnson’s office put out a follow-up report in May looking at much of the same data. That report found that though the number of youth in foster care and mental health treatment has declined since 2022, the number of children in placement after interacting with the juvenile justice system has more than doubled. It also found that authorities are placing young people in all types of residential placement further away from home than a few years ago. In 2025 only 33% were placed in Philadelphia or within a 10-mile radius of the city, compared with about half two years before. And while the median length of placements for foster children decreased by half between 2023 and 2025, it increased by about 30% for youth in juvenile placement during that time. The median length of stay for youth in juvenile placement in 2024 was 143 days, or nearly five months. Johnson’s office plans to release two new briefs and a progress report on June 10, the same day as a virtual town hall hosted by the office. The office’s annual budget is $500,000, Johnson said. She hopes to see it expand in the future. Sammy Caiola is Chalkbeat Philadelphia’s gun violence reporter, and this summer she’s focusing on education for justice-involved youth. If you have experience or ideas on that subtopic, reach her at scaiola@chalkbeat.org .
Original story
Continue reading at Chalkbeat
www.chalkbeat.org
Summary generated from the RSS feed of Chalkbeat. All article rights belong to the original publisher. Click through to read the full piece on www.chalkbeat.org.
