The Arizona Detention Project (ADTP): A Project Ensuring the Transition of Youth with Disabilities in and out of Juvenile Justice System

By Jennifer Slivka and Angeline Spain jslivka@air.org|aspain@air.org

Throughout the juvenile justice system, the transfer of education records has been challenging. In response to this, the Arizona State University (ASU), in collaboration with the Arizona Supreme Court, Maricopa County Regional School District Detention Schools, Maricopa County Juvenile Courts, and the National Center on Education, Disability, and Juvenile Justice (EDJJ), have developed a transition model, the Arizona Detention Project (ADTP), designed to ensure the seamless transfer of youth with disabilities and their education records across public schools, detention centers, community and employment agencies, and juvenile and adult corrections.

Funded by the Office of Special Education (OSEP), ADTP strives to reduce the number of students who recidivate and are sentenced to state juvenile and adult corrections, and to increase the number of students who are successfully and continuously engaged in school and/or work.

Some of the key components of this project are the collaborative spirit and teamwork that have been present from the beginning of this four-year grant.

Co-principal Investigators Dr. Rob Rutherford and Dr. Sarup Mathur of ASU and EDJJ , had an existing relationship with Paul Johnson, a school principal in Maricopa County at the time, who had finished his master's degree at ASU a few years prior. Rutherford and Mathur also knew Dorothy Wodraska, Correctional Education Specialist/Director of Federal Education Grant Programs of the Arizona Supreme Court and Dr. Kathleen Karol, Superintendent of Education of Arizona Juvenile Corrections, who were members of the EDJJ Advisory Board.

The team approached the primary project goal of providing better services for students with special needs by forming five major objectives: to develop individualized transition plans; develop and implement a student education passport; establish a seamless transfer of education records and services; increase interagency linkages and communication; and establish a youth tracking system. Each of these objectives targets an area where traditional juvenile justice models tend to falter, complicating a child's transition through the system.

Mathur points to the current fragmentation of the juvenile justice system where "services finished and you don't know where the kids go once they are out of the door, and no one has responsibility for what happens afterwards." She refers to this attitude as "silo vision" and claims it is the biggest stumbling block to the successful transitioning of children out of the justice system.

The two sites chosen to participate in the model are the Durango Facility in Phoenix, Arizona and the Southeast Facility in Mesa, Arizona. These facilities were chosen because they wanted to confine their efforts to one county, said Mathur.

Individualized Transition Plans, which include obtaining or modifying the individualized education program (IEP) of all youth with disabilities, have already been implemented in the detention centers.

"Our presence has made a difference," said Mathur. The research-based, on-going, and sustainable nature of ADTP, including the collection of data on special needs, reflects the scientific/research basis promoted by the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act.

The second objective, developing and implementing a Student Education Passport, is currently underway and is becoming a part of the students' special education files. The Passport, which Mathur likens more to a portfolio, contains the student's current or amended IEP, educational assessment data, and student products collected at the site. A draft portfolio has already been approved by detention facility teachers and by the Arizona Department of Education.

"We want to figure out what kind of composition a kid needs if they're there for 30 days, or for 45 days," said Mathur. "You can't use the same thing for students at different time intervals."

According to Mathur, innovative and central to the ADTP is its conception of transition as a seamless continuum of alternatives, where practitioners can be committed to a child's success rather than to the limits of their role in the child's transition. In the ADTP conceptual framework, both the detention and secure care centers lead to successful transition, evidenced by increased engagement in school, employment, and the involvement in the community.

Initially, they intended to use an electronic system to facilitate the seamless transfer of educational records and services, but Mathur said that they are improving currently the use of Child Find and the log of records at the centers.

"People didn't know the definition of Child Find," she said. "Now we have new procedures in place, now we can reference juveniles to special education."

Mathur cites the greatest challenge they faced was to become a part of the detention centers' staff. Arizona State University has a site specialist at each facility.

"Our people are coming from the outside, and to make them a part of the team takes more time than you anticipate," said Mathur. "We also wanted the clarity of staff roles, because there were certain things we wanted to change."

She also notes that changes in administration presented challenges as well - a principal position was filled and then reassigned. However, Mathur also points to the successes they have experienced as well.

In addition to the Individualized Transition Plans and Passports, the project has been able to increase interagency linkages and identify resources like the Arizona Bridge to Independent Living (ABIL) that visits the Durango Facility once a week to assist the youth with transition planning and independent living.

The ADTP plans to enhance the success of transition through implementing a systemic approach to technical assistance and professional development, and conducting an ongoing evaluation of technical assistance and professional development activities. Lack of training and high turnover proves a determined barrier to starting new projects.

"Professional development is consistently lacking," said Mathur. "We cannot do anything without professional development. We need to gear our attention toward development, make it more on-going so it's accountable."

Mathur's advice for other states trying to implement a program like the ADTP is to focus on the five objectives of the projects.

"Know what to include in the portfolio so you enable the students to be self-advocates and enhance transfer," she said. "You have to know the resources available at the state and local level.

Whatever we think is effective should actually be effective for the kids, otherwise we're wasting time.

 

Published May 2004