Article archive / August 1, 2012
Originally published: . Volume 3, No. 12. Source pages: 8.
A Senate bill authored by Senator Murray and Morrell amends and adds to current law and will require the Department of Corrections to assess a child’s academic grade level and develop a written academic plan for that youngster following his or her “adjudication of delinquency…”
The Office of Juvenile Justice operates facilities for youth placed in its custody, and three alternative schools at certain facilities.
The academic plan is to include the grade level diagnostic test results, using “a research-based diagnostic tool,” past academic performance, and an “individualized education plan or individualized plan, as applicable.”
According to the new legislation, if the child tests at grade level or above, the learning plan is to be developed so that the child can earn a high school diploma, GED, or certificate of achievement from a Special School District.
If the child is below grade level, the learning plan is to be structured “to bring the child’s academic performance up to grade level or as reasonably close thereto as possible, during the period the child is in the department’s secure custody.”
Copies of the academic plan and progress reports are to be provided to the parents, district attorney, and child’s counsel.
The current law states, “According to statistics compiled by the National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL), nearly eighty- five percent of American youth in the juvenile court system are functionally illiterate and more than seventy percent of adult prison inmates cannot read above a fourth-grade level.”
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