City of Houston Municipal Courts Department

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City of HoustonMunicipal Courts Department

• Juvenile Case Manager Program

Presented by Catherine A. Klier Senior Juvenile
Case Manager
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What is the Juvenile Case Manager Program?

• A diversionary program
• Focuses on increasing attendance of middle school
  and high school students through prevention,
  intervention, and case management.
• Lowers juvenile referrals to Municipal Courts for
  Failure to Attend School offenses.

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Program Partners

• Houston Independent School District
• Houston Independent School District Police
  Department
• Department of Neighborhoods
• Mayors Anti-Gang Office

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Community Partners

• Baylor College of Medicine Teen Clinic
• Kinghaven Counseling
• Houston Food Bank
• Cathedral Health Outreach Ministries
• Harris County CYS
• Harris County Juvenile Probation Department
• Houston Area Womens Center
• United Way

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Role of the Juvenile Case Manager

• Campus-based
• Assist truant youth and their families
• Identify truant students
• Diagnose the cause(s) of truancy
• Perform home visits
• Referral services
• After school programming/mentoring/summer
  programming
• Processes juvenile Failure to Attend School
  dockets
• Assists judge in decisions regarding cases
• Coordinates sanctions

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Program Focus

• Focus on students at the middle and high school
  levels.
• Students must have 3-10 unexcused absences.
• Non-punitive approach to truancy
• Resolves issues through case management,
  community referral, and mentoring.
• Serves 11 HISD campuses 2011-2012.

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Juvenile Case Manager Training

• Juvenile Case Managers are trained for one month
  before assuming work duties in the field.
• Pre-Service Training

• Introduction to the program
• Applicable laws/legislation
• Policies and procedures
• Code of ethics/role of the JCM
• School campus/district orientation

• Case management
• Citation issuance
• Field training
• Community Referrals
• Court procedures/protocols
• Juvenile mental health/child psychology

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Juvenile Case Manager Training

• Juvenile Case Managers are required to have at
  least 8 hours of in-service training annually

• Mental Health
• Legal Updates
• Recognizing and Reporting Abuse/Neglect
• Substance Abuse
• Juvenile Gangs
• Special Topics

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JCMP Origins

• Began as a truancy initiative in one high school
  campus in 2007 under the direction of the Mayors
  Anti-Gang Office.
• In November 2008, the program was placed under
  the direction of the Municipal Courts Department
  and the first four Juvenile Case Managers were
  hired.
• In January 2009, Juvenile Case Managers first
  began work at four HISD campuses.

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Texas Education Code

• Section 25.094- Failure to Attend School
• A student is considered truant if they have 3
  unexcused absences (days or parts of days) in a
  four week period or
• 10 unexcused absences (days or parts of days) in
  a six month period.
• Can only be enforced on students between the ages
  of 12-17.
• Section 25.093- Parent Contributing to
  Non-Attendance
• If a warning notice is issued, the parent (with
  criminal negligence) fails to require the child
  to attend school as required by law and
• If the child has absences for the amount of time
  specified under 25.094, the parent commits an
  offense.

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Case Progression Process

• Employs three phases of intervention
• Referral Phase- students case is referred by the
  campus, an assessment is completed, and home
  visit performed.
• Monitoring Phase- cases are monitored for a
  minimum of 30 days. Case management, referral
  services, and attempted resolution of barriers to
  school attendance. Case managers meet with
  students once/weekly.
• Court Phase- a citation has been issued to the
  student and/or parent under TEC 25.093 and/or
  25.094. Students and their parents report to
  court and are assigned sanctions in order to
  resolve the citation(s). Progress is monitored
  for 30 days.
• Citations are issued as a last resort in all
  cases.
• Extenuating circumstances are taken into account.

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Sanctions/Service Learning
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After School/Summer Programming

• After School Programming
• Lady Like Girls Group- Chavez HS
• SouthEast Aquatics (SEA)- Jones HS
• A-Team Poetry Club- Sam Houston HS
• La Platica (The Talk) Group- Patrick Henry MS
• Summer Programming
• Summer Youth Enrichment Program
• With program partner- Mayors Anti-Gang Office
• Summer SouthEast Aquatics (Summer SEA)
• Home Visits
• Community Initiatives

New for 2011-2012 school year
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After School/Summer Programming
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Juvenile Case Manager Program Statistics

• 2,514 cases referred to JCMP since January 2009.
• 910 cases referred 2010-2011 school year.
• 62 citations issued by case managers.
• 42 Failure to Attend School citations issued to
  students (4.6)
• 20 Parent Contributing to Non-Attendance
  citations issued to parents
• 17 cited students were closed non-compliant and
  court fines/fees assessed (1.9)
• 0 cited parents were closed non-compliant
• 97.5 compliance rate- 2009-2011

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Program Demographics

• From 2009-2011
• 74 of students referred are Hispanic.
• 65 of students referred are in the 8th grade.
• 52 of students referred were female.
• The average age of students referred to the
  program was 14.

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Looking to the Future

• Programming expanded to include all middle and
  high school grade levels.
• Previous school years- 8th/9th grade served
• Expand to additional school districts
• Spring Branch ISD- August 2012
• Cy-Fair ISD
• Expand after school programming services and/or
  mentoring opportunities.

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Measuring Success

• Data collection
• Monthly reports submitted to OCA
• Monthly performance tracking submitted to
  Municipal Courts.
• Internal weekly and monthly tracking reports.
• All students referred are asked to complete a
  pre-intervention questionnaire.
• Monitors and records what they know about truancy
  and school attendance policies.
• All students complete a post-intervention
  questionnaire.
• Measures an increase in knowledge regarding
  truancy and school attendance policies.
• Provides a testimonial area for students to
  explain how weve helped them.

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Contact Information
Catherine A. Klier Senior Juvenile Case
Manager [phone] (office) [phone]
(cell) Catherine.klier_at_houstontx.gov