Special Education
There is a large percentage of incarcerated juveniles who are diagnosed as students with special needs. Educational programs in juvenile facilities are most usually designed to look like secondary schools in the community, and so special education services should be provided. The Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) oversees the special education services at juvenile facilities.
All youth who have a disability, regardless of incarceration status, are authorized and eligible for their special education services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Being that there is a wide variety of juvenile detention and confinement facilities across the nation, the type and quality of special education services provided to the youth greatly varies. There has been a history of juveniles with disabilities not receiving their mandated accommodations and modifications. With the passing of IDEA in addition to Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act, juvenile correctional facilities have become seen as federally funded institutions and thus there prevails the mandated right to serve all students with disabilities as such institutions regardless if it is a short term or long term stay.
There is a grave presence of juveniles who are classified as youth with disabilities. The disabilities most prevalent in incarcerated juveniles include, mental retardation, learning disabilities, and emotional disturbances. Surveys and studies have found that a high number of incarcerated youth suffer from emotional disturbance disabilities as opposed to youth in general public schools. Even with key court decisions and acts, it has been found that a large number of juveniles held at both detention centers and confinement facilities are not being served the special education services they should be provided by law. It has been found that many juvenile detention institutions have struggling special education programs, especially for those centers that detain youth for short periods of time.
Read more about this topic: Youth Detention Center, Services Provided To Youth, Education
Famous quotes containing the words special and/or education:
“An indirect quotation we can usually expect to rate only as better or worse, more or less faithful, and we cannot even hope for a strict standard of more and less; what is involved is evaluation, relative to special purposes, of an essentially dramatic act.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)
“The study of tools as well as of books should have a place in the public schools. Tools, machinery, and the implements of the farm should be made familiar to every boy, and suitable industrial education should be furnished for every girl.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)