School Pathways to the Juvenile Justice System Project: A Practice Guide

The NCJFCJ has published this guide as part of a larger project addressing school discipline referrals to the juvenile justice system. The project aims to reduce the number of referrals to the juvenile justice system for school based behaviors through the establishment and collaboration of judicially led court/school partnerships. The practice guide is intended to provide the multi-system collaborative in each of the 16 demonstration sites with thorough and thoughtful guidance on implementing judicially led collaborations to address "school pathways to the juvenile justice system." The structure, directions, and recommendations throughout the guide are the product of several months of consultation and collaboration with juvenile and family court judges and other juvenile justice and school system experts. The processes described emulate those of successful collaboratives in jurisdictions across the country, including Georgia, Connecticut and California.

Selected sites were assigned to a Site Facilitator team recruited by the NCJFCJ due to their knowledge of school-court issues and/or experience with team facilitation and strategic planning. Each selected site is receiving at least one onsite visit to help identify problematic issues with school referrals to the court system and to facilitate strategic planning to address those issues.