Coalition for Juvenile Justice Summit: JJDPA Today

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Coalition for Juvenile Justice Summit JJDPA
Today

• School Leadership for Improving
• the Lives of Youth Innovative Steps
• for Preventing Placement of Youth
• in the Juvenile Justice System
• June 11, 2007

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JJ/SE Shared Agenda

• Who we are
• Nancy Reder, Deputy Director
• National Association for State Directors of
  Special Education (NASDSE)
• Judith Storandt, Senior Staff Attorney
• National Disability Rights Network (NDRN)

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Why We Began OurShared Agenda Initiative

• Two different organizations with a shared
  interest/concern
• Students with disabilities are over-represented
  in the juvenile justice system
• They might not belong there.
• Whether they do or not, they might not be getting
  services.
• Secure confinement can harm them.
• The Dangers of Detention. (Justice Policy
  Institute , 2006)

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Juvenile Justice/Special Ed Issues

• Surgeon General reports that 20 of children ages
  9-17 have a mental or addictive disorder.
• 2/3s of juvenile detention facilities hold youth
  who are waiting for community mental health
  services.

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JJ Issues (continued)

• Detention facilities are not equipped to provide
  adequate care to youth with mental illness who
  are incarcerated while waiting for treatment
  services.
• Delinquency is not synonymous with violence
  only 4 of youth arrests involve violent crimes.

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JJ Issues (continued)

• Common school behavior problems are related to
  defiance, insubordination and are not related to
  physical threats, confrontations, fighting or
  other dangerous behaviors.
• Problematic behaviors in school that are
  manifestations of a students disabilities should
  be addressed by Behavior Support Plans, not by a
  referral to the JJ system.

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JJ Issues (continued)

• Youth in detention facilities
• Might not be identified as having a disability
  or
• they might have an Individualized Education
  Program (IEP) but are not getting services
  required by their IEPs.
• Short stays in detention disrupt educational
  programming.

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Risks for Behavior Problems and Delinquency

• Poverty
• Gender and ethnic bias
• Chronic behavior and mental health issues
• Neurobiological risks
• Family factors
• Community and peer factors
• Schools
• Foster care

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Mitigating Risk Factors

• Schools can mitigate risk factors by building
  protective factors
• Communication
• Cognition, academic performance
• Pro-social behavior

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How to Break the School-to-Prison Pipeline

• Develop strategies that promote school success.
• Provide teachers the tools they need.
• Develop school-family-community partnerships.

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Educational success reduces delinquency

• Quality education can serve as a turning point
  for youth confined in JJ facilities.
• Confined youth typically enter JJ facilities with
  significant educational deficiencies, scoring on
  average two to three grade levels below their age
  in academic achievement.
• Many have chronic histories of school failure,
  truancy, dropout, and school discipline problems.

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Educational Success Reduces Delinquency

• Quality educational programs in JJ facilities
  have been effective in correcting academic
  deficiencies.
• The more education that youth complete while
• incarcerated, the lower their recidivism
  rate.
• (Black et al., 1996 Foley, 2001 Harer,
  1994).
• See The Importance of Reading Literacy, a NDTAC
  webinar (June 2006) at www.ndtac.org/nd/events/we
  binars.asp.
•  

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JJ/SE Shared AgendaHistory

• Background
• First group meeting March 2005
• Evolution of shared initiative into a white
  paper and Tools for Success

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Part I White Paper

• School Leadership for Improving the Lives of
  Youth Innovative Steps for Preventing Placement
  of Youth in the Juvenile Justice System
• Author Kevin Dwyer
• Release date June 2007
• Will be available online at www.edjj.org/focus/pr
  evention/JJ-SE.htm

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Part II Tools for Success

• JJ/SE Shared Agenda, Tools for Promoting
  Educational Success and Reducing Delinquency,
  NASDSE NDRN, Washington, DC January 20007
• Currently available on EDJJ website
  www.edjj.org/focus/prevention/JJ-SE.htm

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Tools for Success Steps

• STEP 1. Pre-School Early Intervention Birth
  Through Age 5
• STEP 2. Universal Interventions
• STEP 3. Targeted Interventions
• STEP 4. Intensive Interventions
• STEP 5. Transition from School to Post- School
  Activities

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Tools for Success Steps

• STEP 6. Children in the Child Welfare System
• STEP 7. Court-Involved Youth
• STEP 8. Youth in Juvenile Justice Facilities
• STEP 9. School Re-enrollment and Transition from
  Juvenile Justice Facilities

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Need to Address Non-Academic Barriers to Learning

• Social climate
• School and community
• Predictable, consistent
• Students availability for instruction
• At school
• In class
• Academic engagement
• Family voice/involvement

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Prevention, Early Targeted andIntensive
Interventions

• Multi-tier approach for addressing both behavior
  and academic needs of students
• Tier 1 core interventions
• Tier 2 targeted interventions
• Tier 3 intensive interventions

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Tiered Intervention
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Core Features of Tiered Interventions

• Investment in prevention
• Universal screening
• Early intervention for students not at
  benchmark
• Multi-tiered, prevention-based intervention
  approach
• Progress monitoring

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Core Features (contd)

• Individualized interventions commensurate with
  assessed level of need
• Use of problem-solving process at all 3 tiers
• Active use of data for decision-making
• Research-based practices at all 3 tiers

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• Tools for Success

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Tools for SuccessThe Collaborative Process

• Work Groups
• Guidelines
• Criteria
• Format

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What is an evidence-based practice?

• The integration of
• the best research evidence
• with clinical experience and
• patient values.
• Institute of Medicine, 2000

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Why care about EBPs?

• Its important to have scientific evidence to
  support decision making.
• Using the best of the best information ensures
  time, money resources are used most
  efficiently.

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How to evaluate whether an intervention or
program is an EBP

• Is it backed by strong evidence of
  effectiveness?
• Based on the
• ? quality of the research, and
• ? quality of the evidence.

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RESEARCH QUALITY

• Not all research evidence
• is of equal value.
• There are hierarchies of evidence, based on the
  quality of the research design used.
• The higher the quality of the research design,
  the greater the level of confidence in the
  results.

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Some research designs that can be used to
evaluate effectiveness

• Anecdotal consumer satisfaction
• Case study
• Pilot study
• Single group pre-post test study
• Comparison group (quasi experimental)
• Multiple quasi-experimental studies
• Single study using a random control trial (RCT)
• Clinical trial replications with different
  populations

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Pyramid of Research Evidence(COCE, 2000)
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Educational success reduces delinquency

• Quality education can serve as a turning point
  for youth confined in JJ facilities.
• Confined youth typically enter JJ facilities with
  significant educational deficiencies, scoring on
  average two to three grade levels below their age
  in academic achievement.
• Many have chronic histories of school failure,
  truancy, dropout, and school discipline problems.

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Educational Success Reduces Delinquency

• Quality educational programs in JJ facilities
  have been effective in correcting academic
  deficiencies.
• The more education an individual completes while
  incarcerated, the lower their recidivism rate.
  (Black et al., 1996 Foley, 2001 Harer, 1994).
• See The Importance of Reading Literacy, a NDTAC
  webinar (June 2006) at www.ndtac.org/nd/events/we
  binars.asp.
•  

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Tools for SuccessSelection Criteria

• Best practices evidence-based identified as the
  result of research, preferably large, randomized
  control trials
• Promising practices there are recorded positive
  outcomes, but no rigorous research
• Emerging practices founded on sound theory
  e.g., learning theory, social developmental
  theory, behavioral and attribution theory).

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Tools for SuccessFormat

• Brief overview
• Implementation essentials
• Program evaluation
• Available evidence
• Resources
• Background reading

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Evaluating Evidence-based Practices -- Resources

• Identifying and implementing Educational
  Practices Supported by Rigorous Evidence A User
  Friendly Guide. (2003). Coalition for
  Evidence-based Policy. http//www.ed.gov/rschstat/
  research/pubs/rigorousevid/indexhtml 
• Turning Knowledge Into Practice  A Manual for
  Behavioral Health Administrators and
  Practitioners About Understanding Implementing
  Evidence-Based Practices. http//www.openminds.com
  /indres/ebpmanual.pdf

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National Collection Sites for Model Programs
Interventions

• See List in Tools for Success, Appendix C
• Examples
• Model Programs Guide. Office of Juvenile Justice
  and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), U.S.
  Department of Justice (May 2003).
  http//www.dsgonline.com/mpg2.5/search.htm

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National Collection Sites (continued)

• Exemplary and Promising Safe, Disciplined and
  Drug-Free Schools Programs http//www.ed.gov/admin
  s/lead/safety/exemplary01/exemplary01.pdfsearch
  22CASASTART2022Safe20and20Drug20Free20School
  s20Program2222
• Model, Promising, and Does not Work Programs,
  U.S. Surgeon General's Report on Youth Violence.
  (2001) http//www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/yout
  hviolence/chapter5/appendix5b.htmlLST

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Incarceration is not an Evidence-Based Practice

• One of the better studies conducted on this
  subject found that prior incarceration was the
  single strongest predictor of future delinquency,
  six times stronger than gang membership and eight
  times stronger than poor family relationships.
• Vince Schiraldi, JYRD Director
• From the Director (5-17-05)

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Tools for SuccessStep 7. COURT-INVOLVED YOUTH

• CASASTART sm
• Dawn Project
• Educational Advocacy Program
• LifeSkills Training (LST)
• Pen Or Pencil
• Strengthening Families Program (SFP)
• Truancy Intervention Project Georgia (TIP)

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Step 8. JUVENILE JUSTICE FACILITIES

• Discipline with Dignity (DWD)
• Guided Language Acquisition Design (GLAD)
• Pathfinder Educational Program
• Promoting Family Involvement for Youths in the
  Juvenile Justice System
• School-Wide Behavioral Management in Juvenile
  Corrections
• Staff Development for Educators of Confined Youth
• Futures Channel Digital Video Resource Library
  (DVRL)

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Step 9 AFTERCARE COMMUNITY REINTEGRATION FROM
CONFINEMENT

• Aftercare for Indiana through Mentoring (AIM)
• Arizona Detention Transition Project (ADTP)
• Juvenile Education Initiative (JEdI)
• Juvenile Re-entry Action Plan (JRAP)
• Maine Reintegration Teams
• Merging Two Worlds (M2W)
• Nashua Re-Entry Project
• Project SUPPORT
• Virginia Legislation School Reenrollment After
  Release From Custody

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Tools for Success

• Many juveniles can be diverted from delinquency
  or other trouble if their basic needs are met.