In Hollywood, foster care students try to finish high school

In this Friday, May 1, 2015 photo, Darius Lane rides his skateboard from Beachwood House in Los Angeles to work at a part-time job at a souvenir shop on Hollywood Boulevard. Lane, 17, is a resident at the group home for foster kids without a home. Nationwide, more than 400,000 children are in the foster care system. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) In this Friday, May 1, 2015 photo, Darius Lane rides his skateboard from Beachwood House in Los Angeles to work at a part-time job at a souvenir shop on Hollywood Boulevard. Lane, 17, is a resident at the group home for foster kids without a home. Nationwide, more than 400,000 children are in the foster care system. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

By Associated Press June 6, 2015 6 min read

LOS ANGELES (AP) – Tucked below the Hollywood sign, on a street where tourists stop to pose for pictures, is Beachwood House, a pale blue two-story home for foster kids without one. It’s known as the place you go if you are good.

There is no high-security, gated entrance. No 24-hour psychiatrist on staff. Instead, teenagers who haven’t been adopted or placed in a suitable individual home get the sort of care a mom or dad might provide: Allowances, tutors and transportation to school.

Madison Rodriguez, 18, was placed there after living in more foster homes than she can remember. Angelicah Malone, 17, is another, arriving after being taken away from her mother at 14, for reasons she still doesn’t know.

The goal for them this past year: graduate high school. What happened, however, underscored the challenges that foster kids face, and the hurdles educators and social workers have in helping them.

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