Embarking on youth reentry to the public school system from a secure care setting can be complex and should include a multifaceted approach for helping youth and their families reach success. State Coordinators, State Education Agencies (SEA), Local Education Agencies (LEA), Juvenile Justice agencies, and Child Welfare agencies should strive to provide high quality services for youth and families that:
- Identify transition services and resources;
- Coordinate systems services;
- Share information;
- Establish guidelines for successful movement between facility, group home, family, and community;
- Implement process and outcome measures to use for continuous quality improvement; and
- Improve public safety.
Achieving long lasting outcomes requires multiple agencies (e.g., SEA, LEA, Juvenile Justice, Child Welfare, Workforce, Substance Misuse and Mental Health, Healthcare, etc.) working together to ensure that all voices are heard, resources are shared, communication is a standard continued practice, and shared strategic plans are developed for the system. Based on information from Title I, Part D State coordinators across the United States, this supplement is designed to enhance the NDTAC’s Transition Toolkit, Transition Toolkit 3.0: Meeting the Educational Needs of Youth Exposed to the Juvenile Justice System by providing recently released general resources on youth reentry, sharing successful strategies, and identifying existing resources in use among the states in ways that address the greatest challenges and most critical needs for the individuals doing this work on a daily basis.
The JPRC is working in partnership with the NDTAC to provide organized resources related to general principles of youth transition and more specifically along common categories of content areas. Those areas are: (1) coordination and collaboration; (2) youth, family, and community engagement; (3) safe and supportive learning environment; and (4) comprehensive teaching and learning. All the subtopic areas within the general resources and these focus areas were identified by practitioners as important content and knowledge needed to be effective in their work within these respective areas.