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Date:
April 2000 -
(Download PDF Version)
Topic:
School Credit
Question:
Does your school provide credit hours to youth court
participants?
Responses
from
Coordinators:
Jean Griffin
Irving Teen Court
Coordinator
City of Irving
P.O. Box 152288
Irving, TX 75015-2288
Phone: (972) 721-3601
Fax: (972) 721-2389
jgriffin@ci.irving.tx.us
www.ci.irving.tx.us/Courts/welcomet.htm
We do
not have the set-up you mention, but Irving ISD is building
a new academy, in which they plan to house a courtroom and
offer classes related to the legal field. Tentatively, we
have discussed the possibility of having some of those
students as our teen court attorneys—so they would be able
to apply the classroom training in the actual [Municipal]
courtroom setting, Obviously, we have not yet worked out the
details—but, in our schools, the teens need volunteer hours
to graduate “with honors,” so perhaps they can have the best
of both worlds—schools credit for their training and
volunteer hours for the service in Teen Court. [Irving ISD
already has a Criminal Justice Lab in place, but it does not
provide the specific training our attorneys need.] I little
different approach, but maybe it will be a perspective that
might help.
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Russ Landry
Leon County Teen Court
Program Coordinator
Leon Co.Courthouse
301 S. Monroe St
Tallahassee, FL 32301
Phone: (850) 488-4265
Fax: (850) 488-4264
landryr@mail.leon.k12.fl.us
http://www.nettally.com/teencourt/index.html
I am a
certified teacher in Florida, and in addition to teen court,
teach a class at the courthouse titled, “Court
Procedures/Law class for which I award a semester social
studies credit. I also have an Internship program for which
I award credit. We do not give course credit for Teen court
in Leon, Co. Fl. Certainly, an idea with merit. In Florida
it would require establishing standards and a framework of
study concepts and then applying to the Florida Department
of Education for approval and course code number. In Florida
a certified teacher would have a sign off and substantiate
completion and fulfillment of the standards. Some states may
have a generic volunteer component within their DOE that
such Teen court service may fall under for awarding credit.
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Leslie Comeaux
Keller, Halton City, Watauga Teen Court
Coordinator
7101 Whitley Road
Watauga, TX 76148
Phone: (817) 514-5823
Fax: (817) 281-1191
lcomeaux47@hotmail.com
www.ci.watauga.tx.us
Some
teachers will give extra credit towards grades in classes
such as government social studies, etc. I know that Chere at
North Richland Hills Teen Court is working with school
district along these lines.
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Lisa Albert-Konecky
Mat-Su Youth Court
Coordinator
1801 Parks Highway Suite C-06
Wasilla, AK 99654
Phone: (907) 373-5193
Fax: (907) 373-5393
msyc@alaska.net
The
Mat-Su Youth Court works with the local school district to
allow the students to received one half a social studies
elective credit for 90 hours of participation in our
program. When the students want to get their credit, they
contract us, and we fax a letter to the school district,
listing the hours they have completed in each category
(attorney, judge, clerk, bar meeting, etc.). The Instructor
of Record enters the credit into their school record.
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Laurie Ocampo
Teen Court Coordinator
Socorro County New Mexico
Box X
Box 157
Socorro, NM 87801
Phone: (505) 838-1206
Locampe@sdc.org
www.sdc.org/~locampo
Here at Socorro High Scholl
in Socorro, New Mexico, we offer teen court as a full
communications credit if it is taken for the entire year. I
have many students take it for more than one year because
they like it so much. Each year I vary my curriculum so that
they get new stuff each year. Along with learning about the
law, positive decision making, responsible citizenship, and
the like, we practice acting as attorneys, judges, etc in
our class as well. When the administration has a
disciplinary infraction they would like to send to the
school level Teen Court, we just rearrange the room and have
the trial during class.
We also
offer a Teen Court class at our local mid school, Sarracino
Middle School. We do the same types of activities along with
hearing cases sent to us by the administration. These
classes are very important to me. They supply me with the
court officials we need at our county level trials that are
held on a monthly basis. I am the Teen Court Coordinator for
Socorro County, New Mexico, and I am also a fulltime English
teacher. That is why the high school decided to call the
course a “communications” course—because that is one of my
teaching specialties.
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Rachel Toliver
Jackson County Teen Court
Director
P.O. Box 1591
2840 Jefferson St., Ste. D
Marianna, FL 32447
Phone: (850) 526-4496
Fax: (850) 526-3221
jctcinc@digitalexp.com
Several
schools in our system offer students extra credit or points
on their averages for attending teen court here in Jackson
County.Back to top
Sgt. Michael Torrillo
Amherst Youth Court
Coordinator
c/o Amherst Police Department
500 John J. Audobon Parkway
Amherst, NY 14228
Phone: (716) 689-1344
Fax: (716) 689-1310
mtorrillo@adelphia.net
Our
youth court does not have a vehicle in place to award credit
through the schools. However, they have a course called
Government Participation and the students enrolled in youth
court present a letter stating their attendance and they
receive credit from that.
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Jim Kisselburg
Teen Court of Chaves County, Inc.
Director
200 West 1st, Ste. 524
Roswell, NM 88201
Phone: (505) 622-0811
Fax: (505) 622-2141
quikdraw@dfn.com
http://www.roswell-usa.com/teencourt
We have an arrangement for
credit for High School and Middle schools students who
attend/participate in Teen Court. Teachers agree to give
individual credit for attending/participating in Teen Court,
as well as a number of High School Students are
participating in a “civic leadership” class which gives them
0.5 (1/2) credit for a minimum of 60 hours of service to
Teen Court (most of these students are teen attorneys) they
service at attorneys, jurors or bailiffs.
Dona
Anna County Teen Court (Las Cruses, NM) Students in a High
School class called “street law” are required to participate
as part of the class (elective).
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Steve Ventre
Gilbert Teen Court
Coordinator
c/o Gilbert Municipal Court
945 S. Gilbert Rd
Gilbert, AZ 85296
Phone: (480) 503-6679
Fax: (480) 503-6689
stevev1@uswest.net
http://www.ci.gilbert.az.us/court/teen.htm
The
Gilbert Teen Court is coordinated with the Gilbert High
School District. Student-judges receive high school credit
for the course.
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Leslie Paik
Red Hook Youth Court
Director
Center for Court Innovation
351 West 54th Street, 2nd Floor
New York, NY 10019
Phone: (212) 373-8082
Fax: (212) 397-0985
paikl@communitycourts.org
http://www.communitycourts.org
The Red
Hook Youth Court is able to offer school credit to some of
its participants, depending on the training cycle.
Basically, we recruit kids from a variety of sources,
including two high schools. If the training is in one of
those two high schools, the participants receive a community
service credit (the credit is an elective credit, not tied
to an official curriculum)
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Kory Norris
Olathe Youth Court
Olathe District Schools
1021 South Pitt
Olathe, KS 66063-2000
Phone: (913) 780-7046
Fax: (913) 780-7045
norrisk@mail.olathe.k12.ks.us
Our youth court program is
run and facilitated by and through our school district. We
have had the school district offer to incorporate the
program into the curriculum, yet our youth court officers,
at present, do not want school credit. One of our junior
highs has a “youth court” class and our district (primary)
youth court is guest speaker and trainer, etc. for their
program. Further, I have tremendous support and access to
all students during school hours.
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