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CO Safer Schools Initiative (CSSI)

Agenda

3:30 – 3:35 Welcome, Meeting Overview

3:35 – 3:45 Justice Involved Students: Guest Presentation (JESCO)

3:45 – 4:00 Small Group Discussions Following Presentation

4:00 – 4:45 Alternative Placements: Panel Discussion & Group Q&A

4:45 – 4:55 Lightning Round Reflections

4:55 – 5:00 CSSI Next Steps

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Group Agreements & Norms

The following norms encourage productive and collaborative conversation. All attendees are asked to follow and embody them and give facilitators room to ensure they define our time together.

Good Faith: Act in good faith in all aspects of discussion with intent to promote collaboration and productive conversation.

Openness: Be honest and open in sharing your perspectives; be open to other points of view and outcome of discussions.

Focus: Maintain focus on the goals, purpose and meeting objectives; honor agendas.

Listening: Listen to each speaker rather than preparing your response; no interruptions; refrain from use of smart phones and other technologies.

Participation: Participate actively, speak briefly, and agree succinctly. Be mindful and respectful of the presence of multiple backgrounds and avoid the overuse of acronyms or technical language.

Respect: Disagree judiciously and without being disagreeable; do not engage in personal attacks; in all contexts, refrain from behavior that denigrates other participants or is disruptive to the work of the group.

Preparedness & Commitment: Prepare for and attend each session; get up to speed if you missed a meeting.

Confidentiality, Communication & Attribution: Meeting discussions are off the record and not for attribution. Do not make personal attributions outside of meetings, use discretion when characterizing the meetings to others, and stick to agreed-upon messages and protocols when sharing the discussions we are having.

Facilitation: Let the facilitators facilitate; allow them to enforce the norms and engage them with any concerns.

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Justice Engaged Students Colorado

Creating systems level change to generate equitable outcomes for all students

generationschools.org

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Further Setting the Context - Disproportionality and Juvenile Justice

School to Prison pipeline research stresses addressing disproportionality to undo the U.S. culture of incarceration:

5% of the world’s population and 25% of the world’s prison population (Criminal Justice Fact Sheet, n.d., NAACP).

In the system overall:

Two-thirds (67%) are children of color:

41% Black
21% Hispanic
5% other race/ethnicity

(Easy Access to Juvenile Court Statistics: 1985-2018, n.d.)

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Mental Health & Addiction

Substance abuse and addiction presents itself as a growing intersectionality for the youth justice population nationally

(NIDA, 2020).

Within Department of Youth Services:

67% of youth have co-occurring treatment needs;
84% require formal mental health intervention, and
78% require treatment-level services for substance use.

(DYS FY22 Annual Report)

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Colorado Context - By the #’s 20K+

6,308 students who became justice engaged in 2021 represent the size of a smaller urban (Adams 14) or large rural district (Montrose)

(Colorado Crime Stats).

Justice engaged students with on-going system involvement is 15,500 (Crime and Justice in Colorado)
Only 20% of adjudicated

students go on to earn a diploma ("Achievement gap: Education outcomes of court-involved students," 2019).

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Roadmap

JES-CO Website

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Group Discussion

Questions:

In your experience personal and professional, how have roadblocks to an education disrupted the lives of young people such as homelessness, justice engagement, mental health, socio-economic situations, etc.?

How would you help a justice-engaged student navigate re-entry or continuation of academic attainment in your role or the school system closest to you?

JES-CO Website

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Sharing Learning

Questions:

In your experience personal and professional, how have roadblocks to an education disrupted the lives of young people such as homelessness, justice engagement, mental health, socio-economic situations, etc.?

How would you help a justice-engaged student navigate re-entry or continuation of academic attainment in your role or the school system closest to you?

JES-CO Website

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Join us!

JES-CO Website

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Alternative Placements: Approaches, Implications & Considerations

Panel Discussion

Patrick Bershinsky, Pikes Peak BOCES

James Ringer, Joshua School

Maureen Welch, Navigating Disability

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Alternative Placements: Group Discussion

Discussion & Reflections

Do you have any questions for our guest speakers?

What connections do you make to what you know regarding alternative placements within your school/district context?

What additional information or questions do you have about alternative placements and school safety that can help us go deeper on this topic in a future panel?

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CO Safer Schools Initiative: Next Steps

CSSI Meetings

Tentative: December 13, 2023: 3:00 – 4:30pm

Draft CSSI Interim Recommendations

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Contacts for Follow-up�If you have questions, please contact:�Berrick Abramson, President, Confluence PSG: berrick@confluencepsg.com

Sue Sava, President & CEO, PEBC: ssava@pebc.org

Jamita Horton, Director of Policy, PEBC: jhorton@pebc.org

Carrie Steele, Policy Director, Confluence PSG: carrie@confluencepsg.com

Evan Kennedy, Senior Director, Social Impact, PEBC: ekennedy@pebc.org

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