Juvenile Justice Information Exchange (https://jjie.org/category/research-studies/page/12/)
According to a report by the National Center for Education Statistics 5.9% of all high school students, nationwide, have carried a knife, gun or club onto campus. Of the students who brought weapons to school, 9% were boys and nearly 3% were girls. The 2009 report breaks down the data even more:
7.3% of students who brought weapons to school were Hispanic
6% of students were black
5.3% of students were white
Juvenile drug court is a successful alternative for youth with alcohol and drug problems, according to the U.S. Office of Justice Programs (OJP). A child placed in the juvenile drug court docket meets weekly with a team of professionals to find the best ways to handle his or her problems.
The OJP’s Bureau of Justice Assistance has teamed up with the National Association of Drug Court Professionals to create the new online National Drug Court Resource Center. The Center provides a network of support and information to give understanding to those who are involved or interested in drug courts. At the Resource Center you’ll find training opportunities, research statistics and ways to get funding. You’ll soon be able to follow blogs and chat live with others who also care about this topic.
Here’s a new way to teach kids about the juvenile court system from the Center for Urban Pedagogy: It’s a comic strip called I Got Arrested! Now What? This is a fold out poster/comic that was developed for kids in New York. The comic follows one teen through his experience in the system and was developed by The Center for Urban Pedagogy in collaboration with the Center for Court Innovation and the Youth Justice Board. The comic was drawn by graphic novelist Danica Novgorodoff and can be downloaded as a PDF or purchased through PayPal.
According to a report by the CDC, 7.2% of all high school students, nationwide, used some form of cocaine in 2007, including crack, powder and freebase. The nationwide study also reveals that 7.8% of users were boys and 6.5% were girls. Of the students who used any form of cocaine:
10.9% were Hispanic
7.4% were White
1.8% were Black
Three new guides are available from a center whose name says it all: The National Evaluation and Technical Assistance Center for the Education of Children and Youth Who Are Neglected, Delinquent, or At-Risk . This center has created two strategy guides and one issue brief aimed at helping teachers, administrators and program coordinators provide better education to at-risk and delinquent kids. Check them out below:
Making It Count: Strategies for Improving Mathematics Instruction for Students in Short-Term Facilities
Adolescent Literacy Guide: Meeting the Literacy Needs of Students in Juvenile Justice Facilities
Issue Brief: The Importance of Literacy for Youth Involved in the Juvenile Justice System
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has created an online forum called Chronic Trauma and the Teen Brain for people who work with kids who’ve experienced trauma:
"Through this forum, we hope to bring together experts in different adolescent-serving systems and disciplines to discuss emerging research, current experiences, and innovative strategies and models." We previously mentioned this forum, but it will now stay open until August 31st. Here’s what some people have had to say so far:
I am a high school social worker. Lets not derail this conversation because we are focusing on "labeling" students. The best place to begin to screen and intervene is in school because most trauma symptoms begin to show themselves, initially, in the classroom through behaviors and attitudes.
The National Center for Education Statistics reports that 22.3% of all high school students, nationwide, have offered, sold or given another student an illegal drug on campus in 2007. Of the students who participated in illegal drug dealing, 25.7% were male and 18.7% were female. Here are some stats on student drug dealing at school:
Hispanic students 29.1%. White students 20.7% . Black students 19.3%.
The Annenberg Institute for School Reform is looking for six school districts nationwide to develop and test College Readiness Indicator Systems. The goal is to identify students in danger of dropping out of high school as early as the 9th grade. Researchers plan to create an early warning system using attendance patterns, grades, suspensions and other factors to predict which students are on track, and get help for students who are at risk of dropping out. The project is funded by a $3 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Each school will also work with the John Gardner Center at Stanford University to focus on college and career readiness. Contact the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University: 401-863-7990
Only 47 percent of African-American male students graduated from high school during the 2007-08 schoolyear, according to a report from the Schott Foundation for Public Education. The report is called Yes We Can: The 2010 Schott 50 State Report on Black Males in Public Education . It ranks all 50 states by black male graduation rates. Georgia is 10th from the bottom with a graduation rate of 43% for black teenage boys. In contrast, the graduation rate for white teenage boys is 62%.
The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges is looking for evidence-based programs that are effective in dealing with status offenders and their families. The new NCJFCJ President, Judge Michael Key of LaGrange, GA, sent a letter to his members across the country this week. Here is part of that letter:
August 11, 2010
Dear Colleagues:
On March 14, 2010, the Board of Trustees of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (“the Council”) voted in support of the re-authorization of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act, including the provision which would repeal the Valid Court Order Exception to the detention of status offenders. The re-authorization bill includes a phase-out period, a hardship clause, and support for resource allocation for status offenders and their families. The Council was aware of the concerns this position raised in places where there are scarce or ineffective resources for the status offender population, and received a resolution from the Georgia Council of Juvenile Court Judges calling upon us to address these concerns. A copy of the Georgia Resolution is available here. The Council's Board of Trustees presented a resolution addressing these issues to the Membership at the July 2010 Annual Conference in San Diego. The Membership approved the Council Resolution Regarding Efforts to Ensure Availability of Evidence-Based Services to Meet the Needs of Status Offenders and Their Families.