ATTORNEY GENERAL HOLDER, SECRETARY DUNCAN, ANNOUNCE GUIDANCE PACKAGE ON PROVIDING QUALITY EDUCATION SERVICES TO AMERICA’S CONFINED YOUTH

Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan today announced a Correctional Education Guidance Package aimed at helping states and local agencies strengthen the quality of education services provided to America’s estimated 60,000 young people in confinement every day.

This guidance package builds on recommendations in the My Brother’s Keeper Task Force report released in May to “reform the juvenile and criminal justice systems to reduce unnecessary interactions for youth and to enforce the rights of incarcerated youth to a quality education.”  Today’s guidance package is a roadmap that states and local agencies can use to improve the quality of educational services for confined youth.

“In this great country, all children deserve equal access to a high-quality public education - and this is no less true for children in the juvenile justice system,” said Attorney General Holder.  “At the Department of Justice, we are working tirelessly to ensure that every young person who's involved in the system retains access to the quality education they need to rebuild their lives and reclaim their futures.  We hope and expect this guidance will offer a roadmap for enhancing these young people's academic and social skills, and reducing the likelihood of recidivism.”

“Students in juvenile justice facilities need a world-class education and rigorous coursework to help them successfully transition out of facilities and back into the classroom or the workforce becoming productive members of society,” said Secretary Duncan.  “Young people should not fall off track for life just because they come into contact with the justice system.”

“Today's announcement directly responds to the call to action made by President Obama's My Brother's Keeper Initiative,” said Broderick Johnson, White House Cabinet Secretary and Chair of the My Brother’s Keeper Task Force.  “It is imperative that we ensure that incarcerated youth are receiving a quality education and provide them with the necessary tools for a second chance.  I applaud Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary Arne Duncan for highlighting this critical issue.”

The guidance package includes four components:

·         A set of Guiding Principles for Providing High-Quality Education in Juvenile Justice Secure Care Settings, outlines five principles and supporting core activities to improve education practices, or implement new ones.  Authored jointly by the U.S. Departments of Education and Justice, the guide is meant to help agencies and facilities serving youth in correctional education provide education services comparable to those available to students in community schools.

·         A Dear Colleague Letter on the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act for Students with Disabilities in Correctional Facilities from Education’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services to clarify state and public agency obligations to ensure the provision of a free appropriate public education to eligible students with disabilities in correctional facilities.

·         A Dear Colleague Letter on the Civil Rights of Students in Juvenile Justice Residential Facilities clarifying how the Federal civil rights laws that prohibit race, color, national origin, sex, religion and disability discrimination against students in traditional public schools also apply to educational services and supports provided to youth in juvenile justice residential facilities.

·         A Dear Colleague Letter on Access to Federal Pell Grants for Students in Juvenile Justice Facilities explains the extent to which confined youth may be eligible for the Federal Pell Grant Program, and is accompanied by a fact sheet for students and a detailed set of questions and answers for institutions of higher education

“High-quality correctional education is thus one of the most effective crime-prevention tools we have,” Attorney General Holder and Secretary Duncan wrote in a dear colleague letter to chief state school officers and state attorneys general.  “High-quality Correctional education – including postsecondary correctional education, which can be supported by Federal Pell Grants – has been shown to measurably reduce re-incarceration rates. Less crime means not only lower prison costs – it also means safer communities.”

The President has set a goal that, by 2020, our nation will have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world and that all Americans complete at least one year or more of college or career training.  The Administration believes that even youth in correctional facilities can play their part in helping us achieve that vision. 

Providing young people in confinement with access to the education they need is one of the most powerful and cost-effectives strategies for ensuring they become productive members of their communities.  The average cost to confine a juvenile is $88,000 per year – and a recent study showed that about 55 percent of youth were rearrested within 12 months of release.  Inmates of all ages are half as likely to go back to jail if they participate in higher education – even compared to inmates with similar histories.

This joint effort by the Departments of Education and Justice is one of a number of notable actions that they have taken to ensure that education programming in juvenile justice residential facilities is comparable to services provided in any school.  The departments have been working together to help communities reduce the number of youth entering the justice system and to ensure that those in the system return to their communities with dignity, skills and viable education and employment opportunities including the following efforts this year:

·         Justice and Education jointly released a School Climate and Discipline Guidance Package to provide schools with a roadmap to reduce the usage of exclusionary discipline practice and clarify schools’ civil rights obligation to not discriminate on the basis of race, color, or national origin in the administration of school discipline.

·         Education released the results of the 2011-2012 Civil Rights Data Collection, which includes school discipline data from most every school in the country and certain juvenile justice facilities.

·         Justice and Education filed a joint Statement of Interest in the G.F. v. Contra Costa County lawsuit in support of confined youth with disabilities who alleged that they were placed in solitary confinement for 22 hours or more per day, discriminated against on the basis of their disability, and denied their right to a free, appropriate public education.

·         Attorney General Holder and Secretary Duncan met with leaders from 22 agencies for a Federal Interagency Reentry Council meeting to discuss actions to reduce reentry barriers to employment, health, housing and education for individuals who are transitioning from incarceration to community.

·         Justice and Education engaged with various philanthropies to commission a School Discipline Consensus Project, led by the Council of State Governments, to bring together practitioners from the fields of education, juvenile justice, behavioral health and law enforcement to develop recommendations to address the school-to-prison pipeline, including recommendations for strengthening services to youth in confinement.

·         Justice and Education coordinated and supported the National Leadership Summit on School Climate and Discipline in Washington, D.C.  The summit focused on deepening partnerships between local and state education and justice officials, and community stakeholders.

All youth are deserving of an appropriate, high-quality education.  This guidance package clarifies that obligation for confined youth, as well as advocating that they have a real chance at a second chance in their lives.  A solid education that unleashes and expands their potential to contribute to their communities is a step in the right direction.