On July 31, 2008, a report, A Review of Education Programs for Students in the Texas Youth Commission State Schools was released, and was discussed in an editorial at the New York Times, Writing Off Disabled Children. The editorial ends somewhat sanctimoniously,
Texas has both a moral and legal obligation to remake a system that is crippling, then writing off, the state’s most vulnerable children.
It wouldn't have been so sanctimonious if the writer had indicated this isn't a problem special to Texas. In Youth with Disabilities in Juvenile Corrections: A National Survey (2005) the authors conclude that the number of youth in juvenile corrections recieving special education services is almost 4 times higher than youth in public school programs. The authors also indicate that there is a huge degree of variability in the kinds and quality of services provided between states.
Presently there is very little prevention research that examines the vulnerability and needs of youth with disabilities. The high rates of incarceration among this population should serve as a wake-up call to public schools and community-based programs that a disproportionate number of youth with educational disabilities are in juvenile corrections. Similarly, there is a dearth of empirical research on effective education practices and outcomes for adjudicated youth (Nelson, Leone, & Rutherford, 2004). Without an adequate knowledge base, developing and sustaining practices that promote higher levels of academic and behavioral competence will be extremely difficult. Finally, with high rates of rearrest and recidivism, studies of transition and aftercare of youth with disabilities should be a primary research focus (Bullis, Yovanoff, Mueller, & Havel, 2002).
It sounds to me like Texas is making a start in answering the wake-up call. What about the other 49?
HT: LD Resources
Citation:
Youth with Disabilities in Juvenile Corrections: A National Survey
Journal article by Mary Magee Quinn, Robert B. Rutherford, Peter E. Leone, David M. Osher, Jeffrey M. Poirier; Exceptional Children, Vol. 71, 2005
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