In the last ten years, a new term entered the American vocabulary: children at risk. It means children who are showing behaviors that have a strong connection to failure in school and failure in life. A high percentage of children who are at risk follow a predictable pattern to a sad and damaging outcome.
     For every child at risk, there is one repeating pattern: many parents are not involved with their child or their child's education. Regardless of any other, or no other risk factors, children at risk have parents who are missing in action.
     As early as 1998, the Urban Institute and other researchers documented the behavior of children in schools who were considered to be high risk. The researchers concluded that the root causes came from children's home life. Parents of children at risk become even less involved as their children approach adolescence - leaving those children vulnerable at a critical point in life.
     Children in the westside neighborhoods have a sadly reduced chance to succeed in school or in life.
     Many factors put children at risk:

 1. Economic disadvantage: More 40% of the elementary schools in one District are classified as Title 1 schools - a measurement of the poverty level of the community that the schools serve.

Poverty is a tremendous risk factor. Our children in these Title 1 schools have not had educational toys or books, trips to a museum or zoo or educational experiences that are taken for granted by middle income and affluent families. They are an estimated 1800 educational hours behind their peers by first grade!

2. Non-English language at home: Many of our children at risk speak English as a second language. They have learned their English in school - but before they can learn curriculum, they have to learn a language - a factor that puts them further behind in education and more at risk for failure.

3. Low literacy rate: Low literacy rate: Many of children at risk have parents who never completed their own educations. Their homes have no books, periodicals or newspapers. Parents often have a low literacy rate themselves - and do not or cannot read to their children.

4. Reports from the Orange County Social Service Agency show that in a majority of low - to extremely low-income families, both parents work, holding multiple jobs between them. Their children are at risk when both parents are at work, leaving long, unsupervised periods of time during the week. They are at risk when working parents don't attend to and uphold the value of school participation, good behavior and passing grades.