OJJDP FY 2014 School Justice Partnership Program: Keeping Kids in School and Out of Court[Category 2: School Justice Partnership Program National Training and Technical Assistance]

OJJDP is partnering with the Department of Education and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to implement a multidisciplinary initiative to improve school climates, respond early and appropriately to student mental health and behavioral needs, avoid referring students to law enforcement and juvenile justice as a disciplinary response, and facilitate a proactive and supportive school reentry process in the rare instances in which a youth is referred. This is part of a larger effort to enhance collaboration and coordination among schools, mental and behavioral health specialists, law enforcement, and juvenile justice officials at the state and local levels and ensure adults have the support, training, and a shared framework to help students succeed in school and prevent negative outcomes. This program is authorized pursuant to paragraph (3)(D) under the Juvenile Justice heading in the Department of Justice Appropriations Act, 2014, P.L. 113-76, 128 Stat. 5, 64-65.

This project plans to disrupt the "school to juvenile justice pathway" by replicating a judicially-led intervention pioneered by Judge Steven Teske and colleagues that has been refined, codified, and tested by the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ).

Together with four critical partners -- the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the National Association of State Boards of Education, the National Center for Mental Health and Juvenile Justice and the National Child Traumatic Stress Network -- NCJFCJ will establish and operate a National Resource Center on School Justice Partnerships to provide access to research and onsite/offsite training and technical assistance to Category 1 sites and other selected jurisdictions in topics including data collection/analysis and the development of new policies and agreements.

Activities will include: publishing several bulletins on lessons learned from the Category 1 sites; conducting two School Justice Institutes to train teams from Category 1 sites and other jurisdictions on how to reform school discipline procedures and the court referral process; and facilitating an All-Sites Meeting for Category 1 sites and other jurisdictions to share information, ideas, successes, failures and challenges in their school discipline reform work.

NCJFCJ also plans a Train the Trainer event to enlarge the pool of facilitators/faculty available to assist Category 1 sites and other jurisdictions. CA/NCF