As Transition experts, you understand the challenges of transitioning from high school to adulthood. Mastering independent living skills, planning for further education or training, and navigating the world of employment can be a challenge for any young adult. Students with disabilities meet even greater difficulties. Those with disabilities entangled in the juvenile justice system confront even more significant hurdles.
Many factors can lead a young person into the juvenile justice system: addiction, disability, peer influence, poverty, or other societal and health-related challenges. Whatever the cause, the transition from their juvenile justice placement to their home community is often daunting. Will they return to their family of origin or find another placement? Will they go back to their previous school or a different one? As educators, are we ready to welcome them back? How can we build safe bridges back to a new and improved identity and lived experience?
To add a real-life dimension to these abstract concepts, we’d like you to meet Lloyd Hale.
When your students transition from juvenile justice placement to school, here are some questions to ask:
- Who will be their school connection?
- What supports are available?
- Since students don’t have access to technology while incarcerated, how do you introduce new devices and digital safety skills?
- How do you reestablish relationships with parents?
- What is the process for obtaining student records?
- How is appropriate placement determined?
Resources
- Ideas that Work —Advocate to Improve Outcomes
- University of Minnesota Institute on Community Integration—The Power of a Caring Adult in a Student’s Life
- The Council of State Governments Justice Center
- Youth Engaged 4 Change