Transition Toolkit

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NOTE: An updated version of this Toolkit is available. The second edition of NDTAC’s Transition Toolkit brings together strategies, existing practices, and updated resources and documents on transition to enable administrators and service providers to provide high-quality transition services for children and youth moving into, through, and out of education programs within the juvenile justice system.

Communication, Cooperation, Collaboration

By Regina Waugh

This is the first installment of NDTAC's Transition Toolkit. Other sections of the Toolkit will follow in the coming months.

Introduction

In an ideal world, at-risk youth would be able to easily access the educational, mental health, and substance abuse services they need in the community from teachers, counselors, family, and friends. As researchers have noted, risk factors such as learning disabilities, family disruption, mental health problems, and drugs, should be directly addressed by individualized education, mentorship, counseling, and positive community programming.[1] In the real world, however, such a seamless array of services is rarely available. Services are usually delivered through multiple providers and their availability hinges upon the level of collaboration between a collection of Federal, State, and local agencies. While many recognize the unique opportunity to provide these youth with education, counseling, and vocational services, research has shown that much of that work is negated by insufficient transition and aftercare services to help students reenter the community.[2]

Collaboration

Researchers define collaboration as "the process of individuals or organizations sharing resources and responsibilities jointly to plan, implement, and evaluate programs to achieve common goals."[3] The emphasis is on "fundamentally alter[ing] traditional agency relationships."[4] Formal collaboration requires individual agencies to commit considerable amounts of time, money, and manpower on behalf of individual agencies.

Common barriers to effective collaboration [5] include:

Disagreements between staff from different agencies regarding individual responsibilities and authority.
The lack of a common vocabulary and information base between staff from different agencies.
The commitment of large amounts of time and resources on the part of the agencies involved.

Requirements for establishing effective collaboration [6], especially those serving the juvenile justice population, include:

Clear goals and roles
Leadership in initiating, developing, and implementing programs
A broad array of appropriate services
Case management or case coordination that includes active advocacy for services
Availability of flexible and reliable funding
Processes for facilitating communication among agencies
Mechanisms for revolving interagency disputes
Training and staff supports
Eliminating duplicative planning processes
Understanding how the individual programs can build on one another

Fortunately, forming effective collaborations is not an all or nothing proposition. For those practitioners not in a position to undertake the formal collaboration process, there are alternatives that can both lead to improvements in transition services and help build the relationships and capacity necessary for collaborating effectively. These include improving cross-agency communication and forming cooperative relationships with other agencies and organizations.

Cooperation

Collaboration vs. Cooperation

The fundamental difference between collaboration and cooperation is the level of formality in the relationships between agencies or stakeholders.

Collaboration involves agencies coming together and fundamentally changing their individual approaches to a goal to allow for the sharing of resources and responsibilities.

Cooperation is an informal arrangement in which the individual agencies or stakeholders maintain their separate mandates and responsibilities, but do some work together to meet a common goal.

Cooperation involves "parallel activities among individuals or organizations that associate informally to accomplish their common goals."[7] At the State level, cooperation may take the form of regular meetings between the State Title I ND Coordinator, the State Education Agency (SEA) representative for secondary education, the education director for the State juvenile justice agency, a representative from child welfare/social services, and a representative from the State's labor department. These individuals may work to identify Statewide programs that can be accessed by youth exiting the juvenile justice system, align educational standards both within and without juvenile justice facilities, and improve preventative services in place throughout the State.

At the district or county level, cooperation may be achieved by identifying particular individuals within schools, districts, and facilities to take responsibility for efficiently transitioning student records between facilities and public schools. Another example might be ensuring that students within juvenile justice schools take the same standardized assessments required in the local school districts. Outside of education, facilities can cooperate with various community agencies and organizations to provide vocational training for students, volunteer tutoring, or mentorship.

Communication

What if I am not even at the cooperation stage yet? If there are no such programs or relationships currently implemented in your State/county/district/facility, do not panic. Here are some manageable first steps to get you going.

Communication between students and staff should be a fixture within the institution, from the moment students walk through the door, with transition planning beginning at intake. It is not enough to have basic background information, mental health and academic achievement data, and a history of previous placements. While identifying individual student needs is critical, students should not be defined by their needs alone. Instead, staff must realize the skills, strengths, and interests that students bring into the facility. This information can be identified during a simple intake interview and should be monitored periodically to guide the evolution of the student's individual learning/transition plan.

At the very least, juvenile justice practitioners should be able to help their transitioning students answer the following questions:

Who has been identified as my legal parent or guardian?
Where will I stay the night that I leave the facility? After that? Where can I go if I ever find myself without a place to live?
Where should I report for school? When do I need to be there? Who should I ask for when I walk onto the campus? Who should my new teacher/counselor/principal contact if they have questions/concerns? What kind of documentation do I have for the academic work I've completed while incarcerated? Who sent my records to the school? When were they sent and to who were they addressed?
Who can I contact about getting a job (if initial contact/interview has been arranged)? Where do I need to be? What is the time and date of the interview? Who should I ask for when I arrive? What should I tell prospective employers about my incarceration?
Where can I go if I need food?
Where can I go if I need a doctor?
Where can I go if I need to talk to a counselor?
Where can I go for substance abuse treatment?
How do I go about getting a driver's license or a bus pass?

Finding the answers to these questions can provide valuable information to launch the collaboration, coordination, and communication planning processes. An effective way to do so is by establishing contacts with potential partners at agencies that provide services that may be available to your students. Start by identifying a specific individual in each agency that can be your point of contact. Such agencies may include:

Local school districts (If the number of districts to which your students return prohibits contacting each, try to isolate those that service the largest numbers of your students.)
Community college admissions officers
Social services/child welfare
Community health
Community housing
Job centers
Substance abuse clinics
Probation/parole

Obtain contact information for the individuals and set up a time to talk. After the initial conversation determine if additional regular meetings might be worthwhile. These meetings can lead to the more formal arrangements and agreements that are the basis for effective cooperation and collaboration between agencies.

What about confidentiality?

The prime piece of Federal legislation regarding the sharing of educational information is the Federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA) which was enacted in order to prevent the unnecessary disclosure of students’ educational records.

Confidentiality

“Many educational agencies have been overly cautious in their interpretation of FERPA by establishing policies recognizing a generalized right to privacy with regard to all student records and information. These policies often pose significant obstacles to information sharing among agencies.”[8]

In fact, with parental consent, educators are allowed to disclose information from a juvenile’s educational records at any time. In addition, the Improving America’s Schools Act of 1994 included a State law juvenile justice system exception to FERPA, which allows educators to disclose information from a student’s record provided that:

Such a disclosure is authorized by State law;
The disclosure is to a State or local juvenile justice agency;
The disclosure is necessary to provide pre-adjudication services to the juvenile; and
State or local officials provide written assurances that the information will not be shared outside of the State or local juvenile justice agency.[9]

While no State can have confidentiality laws more lenient than FERPA, some States do have laws that extend FERPA. Keep in mind these extensions must be addressed when establishing record transfer policies. Some address this through a memorandum of understanding/agreement or legislation allowing the sharing of information between entities that have a legal interest in this population of young people.

Where can I find more information?

NDTAC's Introduction to Transition Professional Development Module
The module provides a brief introduction on transition and will assist you in making program changes to effectively support youth during transitions to and from facilities.

View the NDTAC webinars on Transition, Re-entry & Aftercare and State Plans & Collaboration.

Collaboration resources from a special education perspective
Essential Tools: Interagency Transition Team Development and Facilitation (PDF), developed by the National Center on Secondary Education and Transition (NCSET), provides four tools useful for creating and checking the effectiveness of interagency teams, as well as examples of models used in Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania.

NCSET has also hosted several teleconfererences on the topic of interagency collaboration, with a focus on transition for youth with special needs; transcripts are available.

The National Center on Education, Disability, and Juvenile Justice (EDJJ) provides a tool highlighting the development and implementation of transition plans for students with disabilities in the juvenile justice system. One section provides innovative practices for effective interagency collaboration and references. Please see the EDJJ Web site for additional information about transition and students with disabilities in the juvenile justice system.

Collaboration in the Juvenile Justice System and Youth Serving Agencies: Improving Prevention, Providing More Efficient Services, and Reducing Recidivism for Youth with Disabilities (PDF) is available online from the Center for Effective Collaborative Practices (CECP).

CECP provides resources primarily related to enhancing transition for youth with disabilities.

The Technical Assistance Partnership for Child and Family Mental Health assists communities receiving the Systems of Care grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA). Their Web site provides resources specific to juvenile justice collaboration challenges, as well as larger interagency collaboration issues.

Collaboration resources from a mental health perspective
Mental Health and Juvenile Justice: Building a Model for Effective Service Delivery is an initiative being undertaken by the National Center for Mental Health and Juvenile Justice (NCMHJJ). The goal of this effort is to develop a comprehensive model for delivering a broad range of mental health and substance abuse services to youth at critical points of contact within the juvenile justice system. Please see the NCHMJJ Web site for additional information about mental health and juvenile justice.

Wraparound Milwaukee is a health maintenance organization involving collaboration among Child Welfare, Juvenile Justice, Mental Health and Education in the treatment of children with serious emotional, mental health, and behavioral challenges. Currently, projects are underway in the Juvenile Justice System to transition youth from State correctional facilities using the Wraparound approach.

Other collaboration resources
Raising the Level of Awareness Between Child Maltreatment and Juvenile Delinquency:
Results of an On-line Survey, conducted by the Child Welfare League of America Web site (CWLA), found that while most respondents reported that their probation division or court services unit had a policy, procedure, or regulation allowing for collaboration with agencies having custodial responsibility for youth who have been victims of child maltreatment, most did not have a specific program or project for this population.

State Statutes on Juvenile Interagency Information & Record Sharing, sponsored by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and Fox Valley Technical College site, is an online resource with State laws current to fall 2004 relevant to juvenile interagency record sharing. The Web site briefly discusses the role of interagency teams as a more comprehensive and effective tool for insuring the wellness of children in all areas.

[1] Morley, E. & Rossman, S.B. (1998). Helping at-risk youth: Lessons from community-based initiatives . Washington , DC : The Urban Institute.

[2] Larson, K. A., & Turner, K. D. (2002, June). Best practices for serving court involved youth with learning, attention, and behavioral disabilities. Washington , DC : U.S. Department of Education and U.S. Department of Justice.

[3] Leone, P., Quinn, M. M., & Osher, D. M. (2002). Collaboration in the juvenile justice system and youth serving agencies: Improving prevention, providing more efficient services, and reducing recidivism for youth with disabilities. Washington, DC: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Hodges, S., Nesman, T., & Hernandez, M. (1999). Promising practices: Building collaboration in systems of care. Systems of Care: Promising Practices in Children's Mental Health, 1998 Series, Volume VI. Washington, DC: Center of Effective Collaboration and Practice, American Institutes for Research.

[8] Stephens, R. D. & Arnette, J. L. (2000, February). From the courthouse to the schoolhouse: Making successful transitions. Juvenile Justice Bulletin.

[9] Medaris, M. (1998, May). A guide to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. OJJDP Fact Sheet, 78.

Published March 2005

The National Evaluation and Technical Assistance Center for the Education of Children and Youth Who Are Neglected, Delinquent, or At Risk (NDTAC)