Purpose

The Prevention and Intervention Programs for Children and Youth who are Neglected, Delinquent or At-Risk provide financial assistance to educational programs for youths in state-operated institutions or community day programs. The program also provides financial assistance to support school districts' programs involving collaboration with locally operated correctional facilities. The expanding juvenile correctional system and the educational deficits of most correctional education students pose challenges to the delivery of educational services to neglected and delinquent youths. In 1998-99, state agency programs served 170,000 neglected and delinquent students, while local agency programs served an additional 92,000 students in local correctional facilities. Participants in state institutions in 1998 were overwhelmingly male (89 percent), a little more than half (51 percent) were African American, and 53 percent were between the ages of 14 and 17.

WHAT'S NEW--The No Child Left Behind Act

Focuses on What Works

• Improves transition services. State education agencies (SEAs) are to designate an individual in each correctional facility or institution for neglected or delinquent children and youths to concentrate on providing participants with the knowledge and skills needed to make a successful transition to secondary school completion, vocational or technical training, further education, or employment. Poor educational follow-up is the most frequently reported challenge in meeting these students' needs. In the past, few state agencies used program funds to provide transition services. The new legislation encourages state agencies to support the transition of children and youths from state-operated institutions to schools served by local school districts, and to successfully help youth offenders with a secondary school diploma enter postsecondary education or vocational and technical training programs.
• Provides technical assistance to SEAs. Federally supported technical assistance providers will help with capacity-building of state agency programs. In 1999, state agencies reported that the greatest need for technical assistance among institutional staff included program evaluation, setting up evaluation procedures, analyzing program evaluation results, designing a needs assessment, and testing issues. Although most state agencies required institutions to evaluate their program annually, only three-fourths of state agencies required institutions to include participant achievement information in their evaluations. State agencies that lack the capacity to address these issues will be able to receive the technical assistance they need to improve their educational programs for children and youths who are neglected or delinquent.

Increases Accountability for Student Performance

• Develops a uniform evaluation model. Improves the effectiveness of programs administered by SEAs by developing a uniform evaluation model to assess the educational achievement and outcomes of neglected or delinquent children and youths. A uniform model will enable all state agencies to use a common set of evaluation methods and procedures to assess program implementation, student achievement, and the successful transition of these students into educational institutions or employment.

Closes the Achievement Gap for Disadvantaged Students

• Makes students returning from correctional facilities a priority. The school district programwill focus primarily on the transition and academic needs of students returning from corrections facilities. Often, there is a disconnect between the programs of local schools and correctional facilities, which results in low student achievement. As students make the transition from correctional facilities back to their local schools, theywill receive the follow-up services they need to continue their education and to meet the same challenging state standards required of all students.
• Coordinates achievement activities. State education agencies are to encourage correctional facilities to coordinate with school districts or alternative education programs so that student assessments and academic records are shared jointly and used to guide the planning and operation of the Title I neglected or delinquent program at the institution level.Very few state agencies have as their objective for Title I-funded services to assist neglected or delinquent students to meet the same statewide achievement standards established for all public school students. Improved coordination between school districts and correctional facilities will help develop continuity between the educational services provided to these students.

How It Works

Under SEA programs, states receive formula funds based on the number of children in state-operated institutions and per-pupil educational expenditures. Each state's allocation is generated by child counts in state juvenile institutions that provide at least 20 hours of instruction from nonfederal funds and adult correctional institutions that provide 15 hours of instruction a week. The SEA then makes subgrants to state agencies based on their proportional share of the state's adjusted enrollment count of neglected or delinquent children and youths.

Under local agency programs, the SEA awards subgrants to districts with high numbers or percentages of children and youth in locally operated juvenile correctional facilities, including facilities involved in community day programs.

Key Requirements

State agencies and districts that conduct a program under Title I for neglected or delinquent children and youths are required to:

• Meet the educational needs of neglected, delinquent, and at-risk children and youths, and assist in the transition of these students from correctional facilities to locally operated programs.
• Ensure that these students have the same opportunities to achieve as if they were in local schools in the state.
• Evaluate the program and disaggregate data on participation by gender, race, ethnicity, and age, not less than once every three years.

How Quality Is Measured

The required state agency and school district evaluations will determine the program's impact on the ability of these students to:

• Maintain and improve educational achievement.
• Accrue school credits that meet state requirements for grade promotion and secondary school graduation.
• Make the transition to a regular program or other education program operated by a school district.
• Complete secondary school and obtain employment after leaving the correctional facility or institution for neglected or delinquent children and youths.
• Participate in postsecondary education and job-training programs.

SEAs may reduce or terminate funding for projects if the agency does not show progress in reducing student dropout rates.

Key Activities For State Education Agencies

• SEAs may require correctional facilities or institutions for neglected or delinquent children and youth to demonstrate that there has been an increase in the number of children and youths returning to school, obtaining a secondary school diploma or its recognized equivalent, or obtaining employment after the children and youths are released.