In 1975, when a federal special education law was passed to address children with special educational needs, Congress found that most children with disabilities were not receiving an appropriate education and that millions of children were excluded from school altogether.

Fast forward forty years later — to today. Many schools across the country continue to suspend and expel students with disabilities for behaviors that are a result of their disabilities. These children often end up feeling worthless, are viewed by many as “failures”, and end up in the juvenile justice system as a result of the same people who are responsible for educating them.

Reviewing the Statistics

• 70% of children in the juvenile justice system are reported to have educational disabilities. Most of these have an Emotional Disturbance (ED) and/or Specific Learning Disabilities.
• Children with ED fail more courses, earn lower grade point averages, miss more days of school, and are retained more often than other students with disabilities?
• Children with ED have the lowest graduation rates of all children with disabilities. Nationally, only 35% of theme graduate from high school (compared to 76% for all students).
• Children with ED are three times more likely to be arrested before leaving school compared to all other students.
• For children with ED who drop out of school, 73% percent are arrested within five years.
• Children with ED are 2x as likely to live in a correctional facility, halfway house, drug treatment center, or on the street after leaving school, when compared to other students with other disabilities.
• Children with ED are 2x as likely to become teenage mothers as students with other disabilities.

Education Issues Facing “Older” Youth in the Juvenile Justice System

• If you are confined in a correctional or juvenile justice facility, there are limits on your eligibility for federal student aid based on the state where you are confined. However, even if you are not eligible for federal student aid, you may still be eligible for aid from your state or school.
• The restrictions from federal student aid that apply while you are confined in a secure facility are removed when you’re released. This holds true even if you are released on probation or parole, unless were convicted as an adult for the possession or sale of illegal drugs.
• If you are incarcerated in a local, municipal, or county correctional facility and you otherwise meet eligibility criteria, you are eligible for a Federal Pell Grant.

Resources:

Here’s a  Correctional Education Guidance Package from U.S. Department of Justice and Department of Education that is designed to help states and local agencies strengthen the quality of education services provided to America’s estimated 60,000 young people in confinement every day.

Here are Strategies When Children Are Arrested for School-Related Behavior Problems 

Questions and answers, for students, on how being incarcerated in an adult correctional facility or committed to a juvenile justice facility affects your eligibility for federal student aid for college or career school.