U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Shay Bilchik, Administrator February 2000 From the Courthouse to From the Administrator The successful reintroduction of the Schoolhouse: Making juvenile offenders from correctional facilities into the communities in Successful Transitions which they live is fraught with chal- lenges. It is, however, an essential process in which schools play a key role in ensuring the offender’s chances Ronald D. Stephens and June Lane Arnette for success and the classroom’s status as a safe environment of learning. In This Bulletin is one of a series of OJJDP would be compelled to learn and become re- fact, the transition that a juvenile of- Bulletins focusing on both promising and sponsible citizens. The Chicago Board of fender makes from secure confine- effective programs and innovative strate- Education understood that when young ment to school will likely shape the gies to reach Youth Out of the Education people were not in school, they were often youth’s transition to the community. Mainstream (YOEM). YOEM is a joint pro- out in the community committing delinquent gram initiative of the Office of Juvenile Jus- acts. The Board also recognized that school- In 1996, the Office of Juvenile Justice tice and Delinquency Prevention, U.S. De- ing was a key to crime prevention. While the and Delinquency Prevention and the partment of Justice, and the Safe and Board’s theory sounds simple enough, the Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program Drug-Free Schools Program, U.S. Depart- process it implies is complex and is filled asked the National School Safety ment of Education. The YOEM initiative with both opportunities and risks. Center to identify strategies for en- focuses on at-risk youth who are truant, hancing services for youth out of the With the approach of a new century, a new dropouts, fearful of attending school, sus- education mainstream. pended or expelled, or in need of help rein- priority has emerged for schools to play a tegrating into mainstream schools from ju- major role in the transition of young offend- This Bulletin, one of a series address- venile detention and correctional settings. ers from confinement within a juvenile jus- ing issues related to that initiative, Each Bulletin in this series highlights one tice setting to life in the community. Schools describes effective approaches to or more of these five separate but often are being asked to shoulder the dual respon- reintegrating youth from juvenile related categories of problems that cause sibility of preventing juvenile crime and de- justice system settings into the ed- youth to forsake their education and thus veloping a responsible citizenry. The public ucation mainstream and provides place themselves at risk of delinquency. believes that school is the right place for information about promising pro- young people to be if they are to stay away grams, practices, and resources. “… We should rightfully have the from trouble and focus on learning and per- power to arrest all these little beggars, sonal development. This belief holds that With help from all concerned, juvenile offenders can return to their commu- loafers, and vagabonds that infest our the interests of young offenders can best be city, take them from the streets and served in school, where these children can nities to lead productive lives. I hope that the information this Bulletin con- place them in schools where they are obtain academic and social skills that will compelled to receive education and enable them to become good students and tains will assist them in taking the first step—successful transition to learn moral principles.” productive members of the community. school. —Chicago Board of Education, Thus, schools need to provide a coordina- 44th Annual Report, 1898 tion and support structure for promoting the Shay Bilchik success of young people who have had con- Administrator It has been over a century since the tact with the juvenile justice system. Chicago Board of Education released its now-infamous edict to arrest disruptive The successful transition of juvenile of- youth and put them in schools where they fenders from correctional systems back to school and community environments can be a difficult one. Juvenile detention and correc- tional facilities are designed to provide a structured environment with continuous supervision and a wide range of services (medical and mental health services, educa- tion, training, counseling, and recreation). Moving from this environment, with its per- sonalized care and intense supervision, to the relatively less structured environment of mainstream education settings presents problems for both the youth and the educa- tors involved in the process. For the most part, neither group is adequately prepared to address these problems. Young offenders making the transition back to school often are still affected by the social and personal influences that contributed to the conduct that placed them under the jurisdiction of the court documentation regarding these students’ to guide youth-serving professionals in the first place. Such influences, or “risk personal and scholastic histories, which toward promising programs, practices, factors,” include delinquent peer groups, makes it difficult to select appropriate edu- and resources. poor academic performance, high-crime cational placements for them. Educators neighborhoods, weak family attachments, must also deal with their own prejudices lack of consistent discipline, and physical and fears regarding juvenile offenders— Scope of the Problem or sexual abuse.1 A youth may also return attitudes that may impede decisions about According to OJJDP’s National Juvenile to school with a variety of special service placement and services for individual juve- Court Data Archive, the Nation’s juvenile needs (such as individual counseling, niles and thereby hinder their successful courts processed 1,757,600 delinquency drug rehabilitation, and family counsel- reintegration into the school setting. cases (cases involving juveniles charged ing) that are outside the scope of the with criminal law violations) in 1996.2 Each mainstream education system. case in this count represents one youth Youth Out of the processed on a new referral during the Educators, including both teachers and Education Mainstream calendar year. Although an individual administrators, face unique problems in Initiative youth may be involved in more than one helping young offenders make the transi- case during the year, this figure can be tion back to school. The main problem of- In 1996, the U.S. Department of Justice’s used to estimate that as many as 6 percent ten is a lack of complete information and Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency of the Nation’s school-age youth are pro- Prevention (OJJDP) and the U.S. Depart- cessed through juvenile justice systems ment of Education’s Safe and Drug-Free A Note About Prevention each school year. Juvenile offenders re- Schools Program asked the National School turning to school from out-of-home Although reintegrating young offenders Safety Center to develop strategies for placement represent a relatively small into the education mainstream is a ma- enhancing services to youth out of the percentage of this group of students, but jor concern, emphasis should also be education mainstream. The Youth Out of managing and supporting system-involved given to building prevention programs the Education Mainstream (YOEM) initia- juveniles, including those returning from for young people before they begin a tive drew attention to the needs of five out-of-home placement, are critical to life of crime and violence. Communi- often interrelated categories of at-risk the success of all students, the vast ma- ties must improve their ability to identify youth: students fearful of attending school jority of whom have followed the rules and address the risk factors that cause because of violence, truants, dropouts, and behaved as expected. troubled youth and their families to drift suspended/expelled youth, and youth re- away from mainstream education. turning to school from correctional set- tings in the juvenile justice system. As a Impact of the Problem Many at-risk young people make the result of their separation from mainstream on Youth and Society disastrous choice of dropping out of education, youth in these categories face school or of behaving in ways that many obstacles to becoming successful, The lack of an education can make an cause them to be abandoned by or socially responsible adults. enormous difference in a juvenile’s life. pushed out of the school setting. Next Harold Hodgkinson, a demographer and to the family, school is perhaps the This Bulletin is one in a series designed education analyst, writes that dropping most formative influence in a child’s life. to address issues associated with the five out of school as a youth is a factor closely Providing meaningful educational pro- categories of youth identified by the YOEM related to being a prisoner as an adult. He grams together with support systems initiative. Its purpose is to shed light on estimates that States spend roughly $22,000 3 and networks to assist young people in successful strategies for reintegrating annually on each adult in prison. Other the learning process is essential. youth from juvenile justice system set- researchers estimate that it costs as much tings into the education mainstream and as $35,000 to $60,000 per year to incarcerate 2 one youth.4 In contrast, the average cost or she were an adult. The waiver decision providing services, seldom does one to educate one student for 1 year is is based on a variety of constitutional and agency maintain a portfolio documenting about $7,000.5 It makes economic sense statutory factors, including the severity the complete range of services that have for communities to emphasize education of the offense, the age and prior record been and are being provided to the juve- over incarceration.