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Title: Learning Disabled Juvenile Offenders: A USA Perspective


1
Learning Disabled Juvenile Offenders A USA
Perspective
  • Deborah Shelton, PhD, RN, CNA
  • Program Director,
  • Child Adolescent Behavioral Health
  • Associate Professor School of Nursing
  • The Catholic University of America Washington, DC

2
Background
  • 9 of public school students qualify for special
    education services (US Dept. Education 1998)
  • 3-5 times as many youth received special
    education services in public schools prior JJ
    involvement
  • 20 of students with emotional disabilities are
    arrested at least once before they leave school
    (OJJDP, 2000)

3
Background
  • Nearly 70 of incarcerated youth suffer from
    disabling conditions (Leone, 1995)
  • Youth with LD or MI are arrested at higher rates
    than non-disabled peers (Center for Education
    Human Services, 1997)
  • 3-5 times as many youth received special
    education services in public schools prior JJ
    involvement
  • On average cost for special services 5,982
    (US)

4
National Estimates
5
Rights of Juvenile Offenders
  • Every youth with a disability, as defined by
    Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
    (IDEA,34 C.F.R. 300.7(c)) is entitled to Free
    Appropriate Public Education (FAPE).
  • This entitlement exists for all eligible children
    and youth, including those involved in the
    juvenile justice system between the ages of 3-21,
    including children with disabilities who have
    been suspended or expelled from school.

6
Unique Application of Policy to Juvenile Justice
Systems
  • Upon intake- the youth becomes a family of 1, all
    rights accorded under IDEA transfer to the
    individual
  • Conflict in policies-Stay Put Rule vs zero
    tolerance polices
  • Suspension requirements Individual Education
    Plan (IEP). At 10 days, they also need a
    behavioral intervention plan and an assessment to
    determine if the behavior is related to the
    disability.

7
A System in Trouble
  • Competing purposes rehabilitate or punish?
  • One size does not fit all a need for
    differentiated programming
  • Overcrowding and understaffing
  • 25 of facilities do not routinely assess
  • 40 do not meet standards for mental health or
    special education
  • -National Council on Disability, 2003

8
Perspectives on Young Offenders with LD
  • Two causal chain theories debated
  • School failure hypothesis
  • Susceptibility theory
  • Over represented in juvenile systems

9
Risk Factors for Delinquency Among Youth with LD
  • Pre-school developmental limitations
  • Impulsivity
  • Irritability
  • Borderline intelligence (IQ 71-84)
  • Brain injury

10
Definitions
  • Specific learning disorder as defined by DSM-IV
  • Reading disorder
  • Mathematics disorder
  • Disorder of written expression
  • LD NOS

11
Diagnostic Features
  • Conduct Disorder
  • Oppositional Defiant Disorder
  • Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
  • Major Depressive Disorder
  • Dysthymic Disorder

12
Associated Features
  • Demoralization
  • Low self-esteem
  • Deficits in social skills
  • School drop-out rate 40
  • Underlying abnormalities in cognitive processing

13
Pathway of LD to Delinquency
  • Overlap between achievement difficulties,
    particularly in reading and acting-out/externali
    zing behavior problems
  • Commonly, the trajectory shifts to depression by
    adolescence

14
Pathways to Delinquency for Youth with Learning
Disorders
community
Learning difficulties/ poor school readiness
Disruptive behavior/ suspension expulsion/
family
child
Rejection in classroom
high drop-out rates/ with deviant peers
Depression/ Delinquent Activity
early risk factors school entry
early school years preadolescence
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Methodology
  • 372 youth, 60 females
  • Random sample, 25 of all males, all females
  • Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children
  • Global Assessment of Functioning
  • Dept. Juvenile Justice records
  • Child Health Inventory Profile
  • Dept. Juvenile Justice cost records

19
Maryland Data
  • 143 youth (38) diagnosed with a LD as noted on
    Axis 2
  • For youth with LD diagnosis
  • 100 male, 93 urban resident
  • 79 African American
  • 79 15-17 years of age
  • 96 avg. intelligence

20
Social Data
  • 43 family income lt 30,000 annually
  • 53 public insurance, 24 no insurance
  • 4 not in school 66 High school

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22
Other Factors
  • Comparing youth with LD diagnosis to those
    without
  • 71 physical/sexual abuse
    (?213.41, df2, p .001)
  • 43 suspended/expelled
    (?219.85, df5, p .001)

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First Treatment by JJ Episode
30
JJ Services over JJ episodes
31
Tx Services over JJ Episodes
32
Service Gaps
  • Youth most likely to encounter service gaps are
    those youth with substance abuse and mental
    health problems, adjudicated as delinquent with
    multiple health problems, including those with
    disabilities and likely to drop out of school.
  • - Report of the Surgeon General- Mental
    Health Culture, Race, Ethnicity, 2001

33
To treat or incarcerate?
  • Missed prevention opportunities
  • Disconnect between recognition of aggressive and
    violent behaviors as symptoms
  • Youth misconceptions about their health status

34
Target Interventions
  • Nationally, youth confined to institutions have a
    low level of functioning with respect to basic
    skills needed for living in the community
  • Problem solving as a central feature can become a
    key element of successful alternative education
    programs
  • Alternative Education Programs linking classrooms
    and instructional experiences to the community.

35
Key Components of Effective Special
Education Programs in Juvenile Correctional
Facilities
  • Integrated, multidisciplinary framework for
    service delivery
  • Competency-based curriculum options
  • Direct and peer-mediated instructional strategies
  • Functional curriculum-based assessment

36
Key Components of Effective Special
Education Programs in Juvenile Correctional
Facilities
  • Pro-social Skills Curriculum
  • Business and community involvement
  • Professionalism, leadership, and advocacy
  • Ongoing professional development
  • Sufficient fiscal resources

37
Effective Programs
  • Adequate food, housing, clothing
  • Healthcare
  • Relationships with caring positive adults
  • Supervision, monitoring, limit setting, control,
    discipline
  • High expectations future options
  • Academic skill development
  • Life skill Social skill training
  • Routines traditions
  • Community supports, case management interface
    with schools and other organizations

38
Strengthen Programs
  • To ensure that eligible young people receive
    special education services, correctional
    education programs need to
  • develop stronger ties to public school programs
  • have fiscal and administrative autonomy from the
    correctional agency and
  • meet standards associated with public school
    programs.

39
Juvenile System Efforts
  • JJ professionals need to learn to recognize youth
    with disabilities
  • Courts need to be alert to cases that involve
    school-based difficulties
  • First-time offenders with minor offenses
  • Diverting cases where the disability is severe
    and where the child would be unable to comply
    with court orders
  • Education dispositions

40
Conclusion
  • Dissemination of promising practices is not
    widespread among juvenile facilities .
  • The consequences associated with school dropout
    and delinquency are staggering for the youth we
    have failed and for their familiesas it is for
    all citizens.

41
Resources
  • Child Trends Guide to Effective Programs
  • http//www.childtrends.org/lifecourse/index.htm
  • What Works for Child and Youth Development
  • http//www.childtrends.org/childyouthdevelopment_i
    ntroa.asp
  • Administration for Children and Families
    Promising Practices
  • http//nccanch.acf.hhs.gov/profess/promising/index
    .cfm
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