Counties across California are stepping up efforts to ensure that students going to schools in juvenile detention facilities make it back to their communities — and have a fighting chance to succeed in school and life.
In addition to help from caseworkers and counselors, many counties are hiring additional support staff, called “transition specialists,” to help students bridge the gap between “court schools,” which they may attend for a few weeks, and an educational placement allowing them to graduate from high school.
At least sixteen California counties, from Butte in the north to Riverside in the south, have hired transition specialists, according to the California County Superintendents Educational Services Association, which oversees county court schools.
The support such specialists can provide can be key to ensuring that students enrolled in court schools have the best chance of success. On an average day, about 7,000 students attend these schools, but over the course of a year the total number of students served is several times higher.
Lauren Brady, an attorney in the Berkeley office of Public Counsel, a public interest law firm, said the encouraging news is that the state “has started to recognize that this is a population of students who need attention and support,” including better instruction in court schools.
But more needs to be done, Brady said. “What do we do to keep young people connected to school?” she asked. “And how can schools find ways to keep kids in the system rather than out of the system?”
That task has become more manageable, as the number of young people in court schools has been dropping by about 1,000 students per year since the 2012-2013 school year.
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