Jeana R. Bracey, Jeffrey J. Vanderploeg, Maria O’Connell, Cathy Foley Geib, and Mark J. Plourd

25th Annual Children’s Mental Health Research & Policy Conference

March 4-7, 2012, Tampa, FL

Collaborating for Alternatives to Arrest: The Connecticut School-Based

Diversion Initiative

MacArthur Foundation

Models for Change

• $130 million juvenile justice reform effort

• Support rational, fair, and effective juvenile justice systems that recognize the developmental differences between juveniles and adults

• 4 Core States and 3 Action Networks developed models ready for dissemination

• Mental Health Action Network developed school arrest diversion strategies

• Mutual interests of decreasing court involvement and increasing well being and educational success

Background

• Lower number of juvenile arrests, rising proportion of in-school arrests – Higher arrests not due to worsening behavior, rather, to changing adult

responses to behavior

• Law enforcement presence in schools, “zero tolerance” policies, the “school to prison pipeline”

• Exclusionary disciplinary practices – Arrest, expulsion, out of school suspensions

– Exclusion linked to less instruction time, worse academic and socio-emotional outcomes, dropout

– Disproportionately affects students from minority racial/ethnic backgrounds (DMC) and students with special education and behavioral health needs

Background Facts

• Youth who are arrested have unmet mental health needs, in fact, approximately 65-70% of youth in juvenile detention have a diagnosable behavioral health condition(Council of State Governments Justice Center, 2011; Shufelt & Cocozza, 2006;

Teplin, Abram, McClelland, Dulcan, & Mericle, 2002).

• Students who are arrested or expelled are disproportionately likely to be students of color, particularly African-American and Hispanic males. – Even when the behaviors are the same, too often school responses

to behaviors are more severe for students of color (Richetelli, Hartstone,

Murphy, 2009).

Primary Partners

•Continuum of services and

supports in CT Judicial Branch,

incl. juvenile intake, referral

CSSD

• Child protection, behavioral

health, juvenile justice,

prevention

DCF

•Develop, train, implement,

evaluate effective

mental health practices

CCEP

•External evaluation of community-level court

referral and EMPS data

Yale

•Legislative education and

advocacy, community

coalition building

CTJJA

School-based Arrests (September-December 2011)

• Almost 20% of all court referrals from schools

• 55% had prior court referrals

• Often for relatively minor offenses

– Breach of Peace, Assault 3rd, Disorderly Conduct, Threatening, Possession of Marijuana

• Demographics

– 65% male

– 29% age 16, 28% age 15, 20% age 14, 13% age 13, 9% age 12 and younger, 1% age 17*

– 33% White, 29% Black, 18% Hispanic, 17% missing, 3% Other

Progress in Connecticut

CT has enacted a comprehensive approach that changes business as usual across systems

• School-Based Health Clinics – Designed to address the mental health needs of students

• Revising the Juvenile Court Intake procedures – Juvenile Probation now has the ability to “send back” non-serious arrests for

in-school offenses

• Systems coordination, pubic awareness, and school policy consultation – OPM Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee School-Police MOA; CT Juvenile

Justice Alliance School-Police forums

• CSSD Data Collection Efforts

• The School Based Diversion Initiative (SBDI) at CHDI – Partners: CSSD, DCF, Department of Education, MacArthur Foundation

– School based health and mental health is part of CHDI’s strategic plan

Goals of the School

Based Diversion Initiative

• Reduce the number of discretionary arrests in school; reduce expulsions and out-of school suspensions

• Build knowledge and skills among teachers, school staff, and school resource officers to recognize and manage behavioral health crises in the school, and access needed community resources

• Link youth who are at-risk of arrest, and who have mental health needs, to appropriate school and community-based services and supports

School Selection

• Interest – Desire to reduce number of school arrests

– Buy-in from superintendent, administrators, key staff

• Need – High level of disciplinary incidents

– Youth with unmet behavioral health needs

• Capacity – Professional development time

– Ability to track and share data

• 13 schools to date across 7 CT communities

SBDI Key Activities

• School Selection

• Conduct Multi-Method Needs Assessment

• Community Coalition Building/Linking to Community-Based

Resources

• Develop and Implement Customized Professional

Development

• School Policy Consultation/Graduated Response Model

• Data collection, analysis, evaluation

• Guided by a Program Manual

Sample Training Menu

• Understanding and Increasing Empathy for Families with

Mental Health Needs

• Effective Classroom Behavior Management Strategies

• Distinguishing Normal Adolescent Development and

Mental Health Symptoms

• Effective Collaboration with EMPS and Care Coordination

• Understanding and Partnering with the JJ System

• Overview of the CT Behavioral Health System

• Parent Engagement and Community Resources

• Multicultural Competence in the Schools

• School Climate and Connectedness

• Introduction to the Graduated Response Model

EMPS as Key Resource

• Emergency Mobile Psychiatric Services (EMPS)

– A component of Connecticut’s behavioral health system--funded and managed by DCF

• Eligibility: FREE to all CT children

• Access: Dial 2-1-1

– Phone support 24/7, 365

– Mobile hours M-F 9am-10pm

– Weekends/holidays 1pm-10pm

• Mobility rate > 90% face-to-face

• Required response within 45 minutes (often 30 min or less)

Graduated Response Model

SAMPLE Behavior Intervention

Classroom Intervention

Excessive talking Incomplete homework

Change seat Parent call/meeting

School Administration Intervention

Disruptive behavior Verbal student conflict

Detention

Assessment and Service Provision

Inappropriate behavior Insubordination

SpEd referral EMPS referral

Law Enforcement Intervention

School policy violation Drug possession

Informal response to arrest

Adapted from the Connecticut Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee School/Police Task Group

What the Schools Say…

• “The SBDI program helped our school connect to effective community resources. Like many other schools our own staff did not have the time to make these connections on our own.”

• “As a result of the trainings and improved collaboration with community agencies, our school climate has improved.”

Student-Level Data: School Responses to Student Crises

12

8

19

6

0

5

10

15

20

EHMS Wilcox

Co

un

t

Police Involvement

Baseline (2009-10) SBDI (2010-11)

(+58%)

(-25%)

16

4 5

2 0

5

10

15

20

EHMS Wilcox C

ou

nt

Students Arrested

Baseline (2009-10) SBDI (2010-11)

(-69%)

(-50%)

School-Level Data:

Administrative Discipline

1006

146

903

144 0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

EHMS Wilcox

Co

un

t

In-School Suspensions

Baseline (2009-10) SBDI (2010-11)

(-1%)

525

10

487

6 0

100

200

300

400

500

600

EHMS Wilcox C

ou

nt

Out-of-School Suspensions

Baseline (2009-10) SBDI (2010-11)

(-7%)

(-40%)

(-10%)

School-Level Data:

EMPS Utilization

5

0

4

18

8

24

6

15

34

9

21

9

25

7

2

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

DePaolo MS (756) JFK MS (812) Marin: K-8 (859) East Hartford MS* (973)

Wilcox Tech HS* (727)

SBDI School Referrals to EMPS

Pre-SBDI Active SBDI Post SBDI

* Post SBDI reflects a period of 3 months, 9/1/11-12/31/11 NOTE: Student enrollment numbers are in parenthesis

Community Level Data: Reduced Likelihood of Initial Arrest

Among those referred directly to Court: 50% arrest rate

• Among those referred first to EMPS: 13% arrest rate

Youth referrals to EMPS or Court 9/1/09 to 8/31/10

% o

f yo

uth

with

no

su

bse

qu

ent co

urt

re

ferr

al

Days until subsequent court referral

Community Level Data: Lower Re-Arrest Rates

Comparing communities with and without SBDI:

Subsequent arrest rates were significantly lower for SBDI communities (31%) than non-SBDI communities (43%) even after controlling for: • Previous court involvement

• Race

• Age

• Gender

Time to subsequent court referral in SBDI and non-SBDI

% o

f yo

uth

with

no

co

urt

refe

rra

l

Days until subsequent court referral

Summary of Outcomes

• Arrests are down, re-arrests reduced and delayed

• Suspensions dropping

• School staff have better awareness of community resources, resulting in better referrals for families

• EMPS utilization has increased

• Graduated Response Model is being used to clarify school staff roles and responses to behavioral incidents, including administrators and SROs

Recommendations and

Next Steps

• Promote awareness of in-school arrests

• Interagency collaboration to sustain initiatives • Continued program development to meet needs of local

communities and schools – Accessing existing resources in the community

• Expand to additional communities and schools

• Cross-system data collection and evaluation

Acknowledgements

• MacArthur Foundation: Laurie Garduque

• National Center for Mental Health and Juvenile Justice: Joe Cocozza and Kathy Skowyra

• CSSD: Bill Carbone, Steve Grant, Cathy Foley Geib, Lou Ando

• DCF: Bert Plant, Tim Marshall

• CHDI/CCEP: Judith Meyers, Bob Franks, Kristin Adomeit

• Yale School of Medicine: Maria O’Connell

• OPM: Valerie LaMotte

• CTJJA: Abby Anderson, Lara Herscovitch

Contact Information

For more information about the Connecticut School-Based Diversion Initiative or this presentation, contact:

Jeana R. Bracey, Ph.D., SBDI Coordinator

Connecticut Center for Effective Practice of the

Child Health and Development Institute

bracey@uchc.edu

Phone: (860)679-1524