Developing Safe Schools Partnerships--Spotlight on Juvenile Justice

Creating safer schools involves many partners working together—including juvenile justice personnel who have special expertise in working with young people in trouble. Juvenile justice does not represent a system apart from the educational process: it can be a key partner in the rehabilitation, education, and positive development of youth involved in criminal behavior. This session will be of special interest to educators, juvenile justice staff, judges, mental health workers, and others challenged in the promotion of safe schools. The field of juvenile justice involves many issues, including child protection, delinquency prevention, and disproportionate minority contact. It involves different personnel, including probation officers, judges, teachers, counselors, and other mental health workers. The juvenile justice problems that relate to schools include status offenses (truancy, underage drinking, running away), criminal incidents, and other problems that have an impact on learning (abuse, witnessing violence, and family disruption). The challenges to effective juvenile justice-school partnerships include: lack of common vision, different rules and legal standards, dissimilar expectations, and the complexity of youth problems. The keys to overcoming these challenges include: providing leadership by developing professional and personal relationships; seeing partners serve complementary roles; communicating those roles; embracing prevention; and providing continuity of mental health services once offenders leave the justice system. Other key steps involve hiring and training juvenile justice staff to: work comprehensively to address the educational and mental health needs through wraparound services; be professional and caring (including using evidence-based programs and knowledge of adolescent brain development); refer students to other partners.