Spotlight

Nebraska’s Rule 18 Establishes Accreditation Process for Juvenile Justice Program Schools

For Nebraska , effectively transitioning youth from interim-program schools (nonpublic school education programs in county detention homes, institutions, and juvenile emergency shelters) back to local community schools has some unique challenges. Unlike many other States, Nebraska local education agencies do not run interim-program schools. Instead, the Department of Health and Human Services' Protection and Safety Division oversees juvenile corrections and pays educational costs for juveniles in the out-of-home placements.

This divide between the interim-program school and public school education systems can lead to coordination challenges when transitioning students back to public schools, especially in terms of transferring credits earned during out-of-home placements toward high school graduation. Add to this a highly decentralized educational system where each local education agency locally develops its own standards and assessments, and the complexity of developing a seamless transfer of credits from out-of-home placements to public school is apparent..

By providing interim-program schools an accreditation process parallel to public and private school accreditation (Rules 10 and 14, respectively), Nebraska's Rule 18 attempts to do just that.

Rule: A Definition

A Rule is a part of the Education Code which defines responsibilities and regulations for public and private schools.

What is Rule 18?

Rule 18 establishes regulations for interim-programs, purposely pulling from the accreditation rules for public and private schools, and outlining the role of the education liaison in ensuring the student's progress toward promotion or graduation when transitioning back to the local educational agency.

The outlined requirements for accreditation cover

legal operations;
components of an interim-program school system;
the goals and requirements for the instructional program;
number, preparation, and assignment of staff members;
special education requirements; and
regulations for the instructional programs offering elementary, middle, and high school programs.

As extra encouragement, interim-program schools must be Rule 18 accredited to receive Title I funds. Since Rule 18 was introduced in December 2003, 24 schools have become accredited, including Nebraska’s 4 detention facilities, as well as staff secure detention centers, residential treatment centers, group homes, and programs serving students who have been expelled from school.

How Do Schools Become Accredited?

To become Rule 18 accredited, interim-program schools apply to the Nebraska Department of Education for initial approval. After a school site visit from an accreditation team that includes representatives of the Title I program and special education, a recommendation is made to the State Board. Renewal of approval is based on compliance with the requirements of Rule 18 during the previous school year.

Transition Liaisons

With the purpose of actively improving the transition of students from interim-program schools to their public schools, Rule 18 specifies that the "school liaison of the interim-program school initiates contact with the appropriate accredited school to develop an academic advancement plan intended to achieve academic progress leading to grade promotion or to graduation of students." Each accredited interim-program school must have a designated liaison; part of this role is to work to secure grade promotion or diplomas for students who have met their local education agency's requirements as well as ensure that special education services are provided by the responsible school district.

Why Did Rule 18 Come About?

The motivation behind Nebraska’s Rule 18 dates back to the Hawkins-Stafford Act [P.L. 100-297], which was the 1988 reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. This reauthorization was the first attempt Congress made to tie accountability to student performance, a dominant theme of the current No Child Left Behind Act. Dr. Marilyn Peterson, Nebraska’s Part D coordinator at that time, conducted an evaluation of services for children served in the juvenile correctional system and called together a team of interested individuals to look at these issues. Both the evaluation and the team found that children involved in the system have plenty of plans and teams, but the lack of interagency coordination seriously impacted the ability of these children to become educated. At this point, the team was most concerned with how to keep children in school.

How Did Rule 18 Come About?

1. A multiagency task force was formed:

The Multi-Agency Task Force on the Education of Children in Out of Home Placements was chartered through the statewide Workforce Development Committee to continue the team's work.

2. Enlisted support from the State Legislature:

Senator Debra Suttle, from District 10 of the State Legislature, became a co-leader of the task force. Her involvement helped gain top-level support from agencies such as Health and Human Services, Jail Standards, the Crime Commission, the Probation Office, and Education Department, among others. The combination of the senator's leadership and top-level agency commitment gave the multiagency task force an authority that the original team lacked.

3. Determined the values and understood the systems of each agency involved:

Establishing the task force was only the initial step, however. The task force met once a month and had to work through understanding each agency's values and goals for serving children, such as children's education, safety, and health. It took several years for the task force members to understand each other's systems, which was the most challenging part of the process. At the same time, there were funding crises, and a State reorganization that brought juvenile corrections under the oversight of Health and Human Services.

4. Developed a protocol for transition:

The task force first developed a protocol for transition in the form of a guidebook containing information such as legal requirements for special education, immunization, and information needed by the student's community school. To tackle the issue of transferring credits to ensure completed work led toward graduation requirements, one model the task force looked to was the Portable Assisted Study Sequence (PASS). PASS, a National Center formed through the Geneseo Migrant Center, allows migrant students to earn credits across States by completing a portable, centrally-accredited middle and secondary school curriculum through independent study and is used in 29 States. The task force experimented with this system for its neglected and delinquent students, but decided to structure credit transfer as a responsibility of the education programs, rather than place responsibility on students (which PASS does).

To establish a system for credit transfer, the task force decided that a Rule would be well-suited for helping to maintain responsibility at the school rather than student level. To emphasize this point, they titled education programs for students in out-of-home placements "interim-program schools" to stress that students do return to more permanent education programs.

While the development process was lengthy, task force stakeholders participated from the ground up in shaping the accreditation design to meet the needs of the many agencies involved in serving children transitioning from Nebraska 's out-of-home placements. Because the way Rule 18 was formed and because of incentives like only Rule 18 accredited schools receiving Title I funds, there was no need to convince stakeholders that interim-program school accreditation would improve student transition and progress toward graduation. One interim-program school director reported to Dr. Peterson that seven students graduated in 2004, more than doubling the previous maximum of three in an academic year. The school director credited this success to the changes made by Rule 18, notably the work now done by the educational liaison.

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For further information on Rule 18 and the Accreditation Process:

Dr. Marilyn Peterson, Federal Programs Director for the Nebraska Department of Education, first began working with the Part D program in 1987 and has participated throughout the development of Rule 18.
Email: mpeterso@nde.state.ne.us
Phone: (402) 471-3504

Dr. Jack Gilsdorf, Associate State Director, Nebraska Department of Education Accreditation Office, is in charge of the accreditation of Rule 18 schools.
Email: gilsdorf@nde.state.ne.us
Phone: (402) 471-0955

Ms. Pat Frost, Title I Consultant, has been the Part D Coordinator since 2001.
Email: pfrost@nde.state.ne.us
Phone: (402) 471-2478

Published January/February 2005

The National Evaluation and Technical Assistance Center for the Education of Children and Youth Who Are Neglected, Delinquent, or At Risk (NDTAC)