Topic: Sentencing Guidelines for School Offenses

Question: Our school administrators have asked about sending kids to youth court for violations of school rules and for truancy. I believe other courts do accept school referrals. Can anyone give me some info on school violations and referrals?  Specifically, sentence guidelines for school violations.  We have guidelines on law violations but not school rules.  Any info would be helpful.

Responses from Coordinators:

Port St. Lucie Police Department Juvenile Restorative Justice Program
Alice Kenyon
Coordinator
Port St. Lucie Police Department
121 Southwest Port St. Lucie Blvd.
Port St. Lucie, FL 34984
772-344-4087 Fax: 772-344-4079
akenyon@cityofpsl.com

In Florida there is a law about Orderly functioning in Schools. So I've gotten numerous arrests by School Resource officers for "Disruption of a School Function." One incident was a food fight another was a kid who would not cooperate (be quite, pay attn) in class with a substitute. I’m guessing it's similar to a disorderly conduct arrest in public. So it is a real misdemeanor--exactly what Youth Court/Restorative Justice is about. We do have a truancy process for the Elementary Schools handled by the School Board., but we've not seen a way to use Truancy for an arrest and bring it to Youth Court.

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Menominee County Juvenile Diversion
Amy Gallardo
Juvenile Diversion Officer
Menominee County Family Court
839 10th Avenue
Menominee, MI 48858
906-864-1037 Fax: 906-863-9904
agallardo@menomineecounty.com

In our county, school offenses are explained in the school’s handbook along with penalties for those acts. The list includes: assaults, bomb threats, bullying, careless driving on school property, cheating, inappropriate computer usage, criminal sexual conduct, dangerous instruments, extortion, false emergency alarms, falsifying information, fighting, gambling, harassment/discrimination, hazing, insubordination, larceny, littering, loitering, tobacco, unauthorized absence, use of illegal substances, weapons, and destruction of property. Penalties can include conference with parents, notification of parents, suspension, and referral to law enforcement authorities. 

We have found that some schools are quick to refer to the youth to court, so we have begun to enforce that the school’s procedures are first followed along with the truancy policy before a petition will be accepted.

The truancy process typically consists of the school contacting the family via phone and letters, a meeting between the family and school, a referral to Project SODA (Status Offender Diversion Alternative) where a worker helps the student with behaviors, homework and other school concerns, and a referral to the truancy officer. If these are completed and the behavior continues, a petition is accepted. The prosecutor may choose to have the youth participate in the diversion program where a family group conference is held based on BARJ principles. Whether it goes through diversion or court, the youth completes a mental health screening as all youth do. Further mental health services or substance abuse assessments may be made to the court and included at disposition.

Other suggestions we have used are Saturday detention (one hour for each hour of missed class), a daily school report is completed and signed by each teacher, research/essays on topics related to the importance of school and career development, mediation, community service, fines for parents, anger management, apology letters, mentoring/job shadowing, and drug testing.

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Autauga County Teen Court Program
Martha Ellis
Director
"PASS: The Noble Idea, Inc."
698 Silver Hills Drive
Prattville, AL 36066
334-358-4900 Fax: 334-358-4909
teencrt@bellsouth.net
www.pass-inc.net

All of our truancy cases still go through the Juvenile Probation Office. Any school violations that we receive have petitions filed and also go through the JPO's.
 
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Beth DeHart
LRE Manager
SC Youth Court Association
SC Bar - LRE
950 Taylor Street
P.O. Box 608
Columbia, SC 29202-0608
803-252-5139 Fax: 803-799-4118
beth.dehart@scbar.org
www.scyouthcourts.org

In the school here in Marlboro County they have a handbook with guidelines and the violations have 3 levels of disciplinary action that they take. The first level for maybe obscene or profane language is ISS (in school suspension) for 3 days then a patent must come to the school and have a patent conference, the second time with the same charge they get ISS for 2 days and the 3rd time they get OSS (out of school suspension) for 3 days. 

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Montrose Area Teen Court
William Putman
Coordinator
930 South 1st Street
Montrose, CO 81401
970-252-2578 Fax: 970-252-2539
putman@montrose.net
 
The Colorado statute establishing teen courts limits the court's jurisdiction to petty offenses under state statute or petty offenses under municipal ordinance. We have discussed expanding the jurisdiction to include school offenses (such as establishing a parallel court using the same students and procedures), but the problem is we would not have the authority to enforce the sentence. Under the statute, failure of the defendant to complete the teen court sentence results in charges being filed in the state or municipal courts.

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LaCrosse County Peer Court
Bobbie Tippery
Peer Court Coordinator
Boys & Girls Club of Greater LaCrosse
1331 Clinton St.
LaCrosse, WI 54603
608-784-3345 Fax: 608-782-3933
Bee85_@hotmail.com  
 
Most referrals I get from schools has a police officer called in (even for the small stuff), or there is a liaison officer already present in the school to issue an ordinance ticket. I have taken truancy offenses before, but stopped, because they (youth) wouldn't come to court events either! 

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Crownpoint Teen Court
Beverly Bowman-Yazzie
Teen Court Administrator
Community & Preventive Health
P.O. Box 358
Crownpoint, NM 87313
505-786-6443 Fax: 505-786-6435
beverly.bowman@ihs.gov

The Crownpoint Teen Court Program Crownpoint, New Mexico does accept referrals from the local schools. A majority of the referrals are from the Office of the Prosecutor (JPO) of which incidents occurred at school. We handle all cases the same with the exception that they remain in Teen Court for 6 months. We monitor their attendance, grades, and conduct. The same goes for Truant cases. We work with the JPO on these cases (we have a high rate of truancy within our reservation). We also inform the parents of truants that they will be held liable for their child’s non attendance and the JPO will file “Endangering the Welfare of a Minor” as well as “Interfering with Judicial Proceedings” if they become non compliant with Teen Court.

Any question, feel free to e-mail back or you may call me at (505) 786-6443.
 
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Reed High School Peer Court
Kevin Browning
Community Policing Coordinator
Sparks Police Department
1701 E. Prater Way
Sparks, NV 89434
775-353-2450 Fax: 775-353-2488
kbrowning@ci.sparks.nv.us

Our court has a system in place where the court can use any consequences that are available through the school district. As an example, they can send them to Saturday school for minor violations, or request suspension for serious violations on school property. The schools Discipline V.P. oversees the consequences and makes recommendation to the court and assures that the consequences from the court are followed and completed. For suspensions, these go to the district office and are put in place there. We are currently working at getting students from other school into the court for violations. 

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North Valleys High School Peer Court
Kevin Browning
Community Policing Coordinator
Sparks Police Department
1701 E. Prater Way
Sparks, NV 89434
775-353-2450 Fax: 775-353-2488
kbrowning@ci.sparks.nv.us

Our court has a system in place where the court can use any consequences that are available through the school district. As an example, they can send them to Saturday school for minor violations, or request suspension for serious violations on school property. The schools Discipline V.P. oversees the consequences and makes recommendation to the court and assures that the consequences from the court are followed and completed. For suspensions, these go to the district office and are put in place there. We are currently working at getting students from other school into the court for violations.
 
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Maricopa County Juvenile Court - Summer Teen Court
Charlsie Cordova
West Valley Teen Court Coordinator
Maricopa County Juvenile Probation
7017 N 56 Avenue
Glendale, AZ 85301
602-525-8898 Fax: 623-930-6130
CHACOR@juvenile.maricopa.gov

Our guidelines for school referrals are the same for other delinquent referrals as far as handling the case with a few exceptions. We only allow ten days to complete the consequences for school offenses. (That is 10 school days to complete.) We still do not take any violent offenses. Community service can be completed on campus when worked out with the school. Truancy is difficult to deal with in Teen Court and it has it own separate guidelines. Here we rarely handle truancy referrals due to our CUTS (Court Unified Truancy Suppression) Program operating throughout the County. There are many issues related to truancy and often it can be a parental issue. We handle many school referrals including: bus referrals, talking out in class, disrupting class, late for class/tardy, ditching class, disrespect of teacher or other school personnel, damage of school property, theft on campus (when not reported to police), cheating, plagiarism, etc.

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Glendale Justice Teen Court
Charlsie Cordova
Coordinator
Maricopa County Juvenile Probation
5222 W. Glendale
Glendale, AZ 85301
602-525-8898 Fax: 623-930-6130
chacor@juvenile.maricopa.gov

Our guidelines for school referrals are the same for other delinquent referrals as far as handling the case with a few exceptions. We only allow ten days to complete the consequences for school offenses. (That is 10 school days to complete.) We still do not take any violent offenses. Community service can be completed on campus when worked out with the school. Truancy is difficult to deal with in Teen Court and it has it own separate guidelines. Here we rarely handle truancy referrals due to our CUTS (Court Unified Truancy Suppression) Program operating throughout the County. There are many issues related to truancy and often it can be a parental issue. We handle many school referrals including: bus referrals, talking out in class, disrupting class, late for class/tardy, ditching class, disrespect of teacher or other school personnel, damage of school property, theft on campus (when not reported to police), cheating, plagiarism, etc.
 
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Community Court Program
Chris Davis
Community Specialist
Mercer County Juvenile Probation Department
120 Strawberry Street
Mercer, PA 16137
724-662-3800 Ext. 2205 Fax: 724-662-4105
cdavis@mcc.co.mercer.pa.us

My program does not handle any truancy referrals as it is run through the Juvenile Probation Department and we only accept delinquency referrals. In Pennsylvania, truancy is considered a dependency referral and the agency responsible for handling such cases is the local Children and Youth Services agency. Perhaps setting up a youth court for truancy, through CYS and the school, could be an option.

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Blue Valley North West Youth Court
Kristen Christensen
Prevention Specialist
Johnson County Court Services
1255 East 119th Street
Olathe, KS 66061
913-324-6925 Fax: 913-782-3297
kristen.christensen@jocogov.org

We allow school referrals to Project SKIP which is our truancy program modeled after Youth Court. It is very similar except we have a panel of students (more like the jury model) instead of judges, attorneys, etc. We only allow school referrals if the student has not met the legal truancy requirements. We also hear excessive tardy cases. Some of our sanctions assigned are:

• Tutoring
• Participation in school activity
• Daily Planner Checks with parent and teacher initials
• Essays
• Attendance Monitoring (weekly)
• Academic Progress Reports (every 2 weeks)
• Meeting with a Student Service Officer (mentor)
• Education Classes (we teach on truancy laws, goal setting, decision making, etc)
• Job Shadowing with essay

Let me know if you’d like further information.
 
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Monongalia County Teen Court
C.W. Mullins
Teen Court Coordinator
"265 Spruce Street, Room 116"
Morgantown, WV 26505
304-598-3053 Fax:
monteencourt@hotmail.com
 
My "bread and butter" cases all come from our schools. I receive a lot of referrals for drugs/alcohol/drug paraphernalia on school property. These cases make up about 60% of my case load in a year. I have recently been asked to handle truancy cases through Teen Court. I refused to accept these cases because of the difficulty of keeping up with these cases (I'm the only one working at Teen Court) and for the fact that our schools don't send truancy cases until they have missed more than 10 days. With all of the paperwork hoops that it has to travel through, most of the truancy cases only arrive after the kids have missed much more than 10 days. This makes it almost impossible for Teen Court to handle because of the deep hole that
the students have dug themselves into with grades. I have recently been trying to rally support from our school administrators to use teen court instead of suspensions for instances of battery. We'll see if I can convince them.
 
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Communities in Schools
perqcis@net-change.com

Teen Court coordinators and school officials met together with the school handbook of violations.  The school assigned offense categories of I/II/III/IV (Juvenile Court) ranging from small offenses to more serious.   We then compiled them as a list and assigned sentencing guidelines to the categories.  If you give me a fax number, I will fax ours to your office to see if it can meet the needs of any other school administrators seeking information.
 
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Graham County Teen Court
David Berni
JPO
c/o Graham County Juvenile Probation
800 Main Street
Safford, AZ 85546
520-428-3955 Fax: 928-348-0587
dberni@saffordusd.k12.az.us

We do not use our Teen Court for School violations.
 
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Chatham County Teen Court
Rita Marley-McKenzie
Teen Court Coordinator
Chatham County Teen Court
Deep River Mediation
P.O. Box 1151
Pittsboro, NC 27312
919-542-4075 Fax: 919-542-2360
DeepRiverTeen@aol.com

Our Teen Court program takes referrals from school resource officers. The offense has to be an actual law violation, not school rule violation. However, for repeat offenders in school, our officers will usually charge the student with Disorderly Conduct. This charge covers a wide range of violations within the school setting. The reason for the actual law violation requirement is due to the fact that there needs to be teeth behind teen court. The consequence for not completing a sentence is that the defendant must be referred to juvenile court, so there needs to be an actual charge.
 
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Amherst Youth Court
Michael Torrillo
Coordinator
Amherst Police Department
500 John James Audobon Parkway
Amherst, NY 14228
716-689-1344 Fax: 716-568-1182
mtorrillo@adelphia.net
http://www.nysyouthcourts.org/index.htm

Our court does not have any guidelines for dealing with violations of school policy. However we do handle minor offenses of drug possession and disorderly conduct. I would be interested in finding out how other areas deal with these issues.

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Lompoc/Santa Ynez Teen Court
Eduardo Cue
Coordinator
The Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse
232 E. Canon Perdido Street
Santa Barbara, CA 93105
805-963-1433 Fax: 805-963-4099
ecue@cadasb.org
www.cadasb.org

Attached you will find a sentencing guideline for school code infractions used by the Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse in Santa Barbara County Teen Court(s) in California. For more information on our school based Teen Court services please feel free to contact myself, or Ramon Velazquez, Teen Court Program Manager.
 
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East Hampton Youth Court
Kathy O'Malley
Coordinator
131 Wainscott NW Road
P.O. Box 909
Wainscott, NY 11975-0909
631-537-7238 Ext. 234 Fax: 631-537-6833
ehyouthct@juno.com

We accept school referrals and mainly stick to the sentencing guideline for criminal offenses. The difference is many times the community service hours are spent in the school or working with the school resource officer.
 
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Tioga County Youth Court
Eric Watkins
Unit Coordinator
Owego Police Dept. Youth Services Unit
90 Temple Street
Owego, NY 13827
607-687-2233 Fax: 607-687-2235
juvenile@stny.rr.com
http://www.owegopolice.org/YSU.html

The Tioga County Youth Court accepts school referrals (although we don't encourage them as they can be complicated). We've found that the best way to work with school issues for the court to sentence the school offense based upon the equivalent criminal law. Generally you're looking at criminal violations.

You also must have the school back your court up by restricting all school privileges until the sanctions are completed. This is the only teeth you'll have; with Probation/Law Enforcement referrals you always have Family Court/Criminal Court as a further consequence or incentive. If the school restricts all privileges - the offender shouldn't be able to go on fieldtrips, go to sporting events or participate in any sporting events (they're benched until it’s over!), go to dances, etc. It's quite effective (with the school's cooperation) otherwise it doesn't work.
 
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Caroline County Teen Court
James Gossage
Teen Court Coordinator
Caroline County Health Department and Sheriff's Office
407 South 7th Street
P.O. Box 10
Denton, MD 21629
410-479-8080 Ext. Fax: 410-479-0554
jgossage@dhmh.state.md.us

In Caroline County Maryland we take school referrals for disturbing school functions, disorderly conduct and others. We do not take truancy cases as we have no court sanctions against them. Juvenile Justice handles all truancy cases. As for violation of school policies our sanctions are 16 to 40 hrs. community service, apology letters and essays. If I can be of further assistance please feel free to call me at 1-410-479-8080.

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Bastrop County Teen Court
Jo Ann Wilder
Coordinator
104 Grady Tuck
Bastrop, TX 78602
512-303-5549 Fax: 512-321-2818
Jwilder100@Austin.rr.com

Our court handles an occasional FTA (failure to Attend) case. The majority are handled by the municipal judge and the truancy officer for the school. Those we do get, however, fall into Class IV on our discipline grid for number of community service hours and number of required jury terms. For truancy the community service hours fall between 38 and 52, with three (3) required jury terms, plus any additional sentencing the jury imposes.
 
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Hopkins County Teen Court
June Lucky
Coordinator
P.O. Box 1113
Sulphur Springs, TX 75483
903-439-1200 Ext. 302 Fax: 903-439-6563
hcteencourt@hotmail.com

Regarding school violations, we are a small, rural court and we accept what ever cases the courts send to us. Our local high school writes Disorderly Conduct tickets for profane or vulgar language and for fighting. Those are sent to the Municipal Court and the judge often refers them on to teen court. They do not refer truancy tickets, nor would we accept them.
 
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Pima County Teen Court
Kate Spaulding
Coordinator
Teen Court in the Schools
"2525 E. Broadway Blvd, Suite 100"
Tucson, AZ 85716
520-326-2528 Ext. 110 Fax: 520-792-3072
kspaulding@thepartnership.us
www.pcteencourt.com

Here are the offenses taken by “Teen Court in the Schools” sites in Tucson, Arizona and the consequences assigned.

Types of Offenses: disruption/disrespect, dress code violations, gum-chewing, language (abusive or profane), tardy, vandalism/graffiti, or any offense viewed as appropriate by school administrators

Consequences:

- Jury Duty
- Letter of Apology
- Contract for Improvement
- Decision-Making Workshop
- Community Service – within the school; with area organizations; at Pima County Teen Court
- Help teacher who wrote referral – clean room; run errands
- Essay on infraction - 50-500 words; length and topic chosen by jury; possible topics include “Littering and the Environment,” “How School Uniforms Improve Student Achievement,” “RESPECT – This is What It Means to Me”
- Meeting with counselor – discuss reasons for recent behavior; create a plan for achieving future goals
- After-School Tutoring
- Graffiti Abatement – clean writing on school desks, walls, bathrooms, wherever
- Peer Mediation
- Make a poster; possible topics include “Rules for the Computer Room,” “Dress Code Do’s and Don’ts,” etc.
- Worksheet with series of questions allowing the student to ponder his/her actions, choices, and the effects on others (ex: What actions did you follow to deserve this punishment? If you were a teacher what would you do to prevent this action? Describe how your actions affect the reputation of our school.). Questions must be answered in complete sentences and be at least 35 words long.
- Verbal apology to others involved
- Clean/fix/pay for vandalism damage
- Check in routinely with mentoring teacher – assign a teacher/volunteer to have weekly meetings with the minor to discuss how things are going
- Anger-Management Workshop – by school counselor or at Pima County Teen Court
- Interview those affected by your behavior and write a report (ex: janitor who cleans off gum, students distracted from their work, victim of harassment)
- Make a list of 10 positive alternatives to breaking the rules
- Kind acts towards victim (ex: clean locker, clean room, carry books, etc.)
- Try an after-school activity for 2 weeks.
- Research the rule and present pros, cons, and the rationale behind the rule to the Teen Court class or school.
- Write an article for the school paper. 
 
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Warren County Youth Court
Kathryn Price
Youth Court Director
Council for Prevention of Alcohol and Substance Abuse
"346 Main Street, Suite 2"
Hudson Falls, NY 12839
518-746-6059 Ext. 701 Fax: 518-746-1779
warrenctythcrt@yahoo.com

We just began processing school related cases that were being handled by probation. We have been accepting cases such as truancy and possession of marijuana (pipes, resin, etc.) on school grounds. As a guideline, the youth have been using 15 hours as a minimum for community service for the truancy cases, as well as, completing jury duties and a drug and alcohol awareness class. They have been using 35 hours as a minimum for the marijuana related cases because that is the minimum that they would receive at Youth Court if their case at been referred through the court system. This has worked well for us so far. Hope this helps.
 
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Merrimack Valley Youth Court
Kerry Fenlon
Coordinator
Arbour Counseling Services
116 Summer Street
Haverhill, MA 01830
978-373-7010 Fax: 978-373-1678
mvyouthcourt@yahoo.com

The Merrimack Valley Youth Court in Massachusetts focuses exclusively on school offenses. We primarily focus on school truancy which is defined as greater than 7 absences in a given semester. We also will include in the truancy chronic tardiness to school which is a pattern of tardiness greater than 15 minutes. We do take school offenses deemed chronic school offenders which are students who repeatedly violate school rules and have not responded to graduated sanctions. I could go into this further. Please send all correspondence and request for further information to mvyouthcourt@yahoo.com.
 
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Lee County Teen Court
Evelyn Kirbach
Teen Court Program Coordinator
20th Judicial Court Administrator's Office - Florida
"1039 SE 9th Place, #361"
Cape Coral, FL 33990
941-458-7084 Fax: 941-458-7083
ekirbach@ca.cjis20.org

Lee County does not have any specific guidelines at this time

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Pottstown Area PAL Youth Court
Laura McOdrum
Youth Court Administrator
Pottstown Area PAL Youth Court
Pottstown Area Police Athletic League
2093 East High Street
Pottstown, PA 19464
610-326-9274 Fax: 610-326-8136
palyouthcourt@hotmail.com
www.pottstownpal.com

The Pottstown Area PAL Youth Court Program accepts school violations.

For truancy violations, sentencing usually involves: 1) handing in a series of report cards (for each failure or illegal day missed 10 hours of community service is assigned) 2) write a report on a topic related to the offense (the importance of attending school, the jobs and salary ranges of jobs that can be obtained without a HS diploma, how to obtain a GED, research the sentence(s) the judge may impose on a parent for allowing their child to be truant) 3) Write an apology letter to yourself, the school administration, a teacher(s), parents or guardians 4) Sometimes tutoring , club involvement, or counseling is required to help build self-efficacy in the respondent

For other school rules (disorderly conduct, daytime curfew, etc) sentencing generally involves: 1) Writing apology letters to school, parent, other youth involved 2) Write a report on the causes of the offense, how it disrupts the school atmosphere and other students 3) Interview a teacher (on how the disruption affects the classroom) a community official or police officer (on how the offense affects the community) and again, 4) Possibly tutoring , club involvement, or counseling is required to help build self-efficacy in the respondent.

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Hedwig Village Teen Court
Lisa Reed
Program Coordinator
955 Piney Point Road
Houston, TX 77024
713-465-6009 Fax: 713-465-6807
hedwigteencourt@yahoo.com

We do take citations from the middle and high school but they are Class C Misdemeanors. In other words, Disorderly Conduct, Affray, Abusive Language, Assault. They are considered a Class 4 (the highest service requirement) in Teen Court. We don't take any Truancy because that has more issues involved than we have time/resources for. The range of punishment is 42-60 hours of community service and 3 jury terms. Hope this is helpful.

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Bristol Teen Court
Marjorie McCoy
Teen Court Coordinator
Youth Services Office
104 8th Street
Bristol, TN 37620
423-989-5553 Fax: 423-989-6625
mmccoy@bristoltn.org

I am writing in response to the email that I received. We only allow those offenses in Teen Court that would be a violation of the law. We have dealt with truancy issues, but nothing that would not be a violation of the law.

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Midland Teen Court
Mary Beck
Executive Director
"Midland Teen Court, Inc."
"615 West Missouri, #226"
Midland, TX 79701-5017
432-689-1065 Ext. Fax: 432-689-1087
mbeck@midlandteencourt.org
www.midlandteencourt.org

Midland Teen Court formerly received cases directly from the schools. The schools now issue citations which require the youth to appear before one of the local Justices of the Peace. The violations then fall within other already set ranks: prescription drugs at school=drug violation; knife on school property; consuming alcohol, possession of alcohol, possession of drug paraphernalia, etc. We treat them like any other referral (all violent or drug related cases fall in the maximum end of our discipline grid.)
 
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Columbia County Teen Court
Meg McCullough
Coordinator
Columbia County Teen Court
CESA 5
P.O. Box 564
Portage, WI 53901-0564
608-742-8814 Ext. 242 Fax: 608-742-2384
mcculloughm@cesa5.k12.wi.us

Our court does take referrals from schools, but they go through the police liaison officer. If the school does not have a police liaison officer, then they must go through the city police officer (generally there is one that works with the school). We do not take truancy. Truancy is a tough
nut to crack and in doing research I have not found evidence that Teen Court is very effective. If you find a court that has had success with truancy, please let me know.
 
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Teen Court for Youth of DeSoto
Cathy Miller
Director
c/o Clerk of Court
"115 E. Oak Street, Room 201"
Arcadia, FL 34266
863-993-4876 Fax:
cathy.miller@desoto.k12.fl.us

At the beginning of the 04/05 school year I met with the principals, School Related Deputies (SRD), and the Superintendent of Schools to set the guidelines that they would use in regards to school referrals. On the school referral they added a check box that included Teen Court. Of course, most of the zero tolerance behaviors have to go through juvenile court (even though we get many of them anyways). When the school wants to refer a case, the SRD checks their system to see if they have a prior record; although, at times, I do get repeated offenders, but that is the SRD’s call. I get battery, repeated acts of insubordination, harassing phone calls, most of the truancy cases, etc. This would be in addition to or in lieu of a suspension from school. Sometimes, the suspension could be altered to an in-school suspension as well as teen court, or the suspension could be in lieu of teen court.

My recommendation would be to meet with all parties to come up with your guidelines that all parties would be happy with.

The biggest thing I could recommend to you is to make a relationship with the SRD’s. They help me to locate students as well as serve papers to them from time to time.

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Duncanville Teen Court
Olivia Harrington
Teen Court Coordinator
City of Duncanville
P.O. Box 380280
Duncanville, TX 75138-0280
972-780-5063 Fax: 972-780-6463
oharrington@ci.duncanville.tx.us
www.Duncanville.com/teen_court.shtm

In Texas Violation of School Rules and Truancy is a Class C misdemeanor which makes them eligible for Teen Court. In Duncanville Teen Court the Junior High hours are a class 3, 28-46 hrs and High School is class 4 42-64 hours. 

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Colorado Springs Teen Court
Patricia Ezell
Executive Director
P.O. Box 2169
Colorado Springs, CO 80901
719-475-7815 Fax: 719-385-6202
csteenct@qwest.net
www.csteencourt.org

We don’t work with school violations, but may expand into this area in the future. I would like to receive whatever information comes from this inquiry.
 
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Peer Court, Inc.
Paul Sermersheim
Director
101 West North Street
Danville, IL 61832
217-443-9044 Fax: 217-443-9044
peercourt01@aol.com

Vermilion County Illinois Peer Court response to question on school rules violations handled in youth court:

Peer Court takes Daytime Curfew cases. This charge is applied to students who are "skipping" school and are truant. Sentencing guidelines are the same as a normal curfew charge. The jury works within these sentencing parameters:
• 10 - 20 hours of community service
• Serve on the Peer Jury 1 or 2 times
• May require defendant to write letter of apology to Police, School, Parents
• May require defendant to write an essay using the topic "importance of participating in school" "consequences of skipping school” etc.
• Tour of county jail

If police are called to a school for a fight and battery charges are applied, those students are normally given the option of Peer Court and charged with Battery. The Jury works within the following sentencing parameters:
• Written apology to school officials victims
• 10 -50 community service hours
• Sit on Peer Jury 1 or 2 times
• May require defendant to write an essay using the topic "alternate ways to control my anger" "The dangers of fighting" etc.
• Mandatory anger management or conflict resolution classes
• Tour of County Jail

Cases involving possession of alcohol or drugs at school are also referred to Peer Court. Normally the police respond and make a charge to initiate the process. Offenders are sentenced accordingly.
Vermilion County Illinois Peer Court response to question on school rules violations handled in youth court:

• Peer Court takes Daytime Curfew cases. This charge is applied to students who are "skipping" school and are truant. Sentencing guidelines are the same as a normal curfew charge. The jury works within these sentencing parameters:
• 10 - 20 hours of community service
• Serve on the Peer Jury 1 or 2 times
• May require defendant to write letter of apology to Police, School, Parents
• May require defendant to write an essay using the topic "importance of participating in school" "consequences of skipping school” etc.
• Tour of county jail
• If police are called to a school for a fight and battery charges are applied, those students are normally given the option of Peer Court and charged with Battery. The Jury works within the following sentencing parameters:
• Written apology to school officials victims
• 10 -50 community service hours
• Sit on Peer Jury 1 or 2 times
• May require defendant to write an essay using the topic "alternate ways to control my anger" "The dangers of fighting" etc.
• Mandatory anger management or conflict resolution classes
• Tour of County Jail

Cases involving possession of alcohol or drugs at school are also referred to Peer Court. Normally the police respond and make a charge to initiate the process. Offenders are sentenced accordingly.
 
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Green River Teen Court
Peggy Beckum
Municipal Judge
City of Green River
50 East Second Street North
Green River, WY 82935
307-872-6116 Fax: 307-872-0567
pbeckum@cityofgreenriver.org

I don’t take school referrals, but I would be interested in the input from other Teen Courts that do.

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College Station Teen Court
Peggy Calliham
Coordinator
City of College Station
PO Box 9960
College Station, TX 77840
979-764-3499 Fax: 979-764-3894
pcalliham@cstx.gov
www.cstx.gov/home/index.asp?page=1445

In my opinion, if the infractions of the school rules are not laws, then the school should deal with it themselves. If it is a broken law, then a ticket should be issued by a law officer and they can go to teen court.

Or the school could develop their own version of a peer court within the school and using teens but to send them to Teen Court for simple school infractions is the school not tending to their own issues in my opinion.

There are some schools that develop Teen Courts.

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Placer County Peer Court
Karen Green
Peer Court Coordinator
"671 Newcastle Road., Suite 7"
Newcastle, CA 95658
916-663-9227 Ext. 2# Fax: 916-663-2965
placerpeercourt@aol.com
www.peercourt.com

Schools in our area have resource officers on campus. An offense on campus can result in violation of the education code, thus resulting in consequences including suspension, removal from a club or team, or on campus work project. In addition, the offense can also result in a criminal citation issued by the resource officer, thereby sending the juvenile to court (including Peer Court) If the case comes to Peer Court there will be added consequences from the Peer Court jury. Yes, it's Double Jeopardy, but completely within California State Law.

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Teen Court
Rose Pope
Teen Court Coordinator
Prince George's State's Attorney Office
"14735 Main Street, Suite 352M"
Upper Marlboro, MD 20772
301-952-5394 Fax:
rmpope@co.pg.md.us

If there are any School Resource officers (SRO) they can feel out a J2 arrest form and fax it in to the Teen Court Coordinator depending upon the offense. Or they can send it into their Department of Juvenile Service and have it sent up to the Teen Court Coordinator, however the set up. Our Teen Court Program comes through the State's Attorney office. Therefore, I receive my cases through the department of Juvenile services and or the SRO's where ever the occurrence of offensiveness is taking place. The Principles does have the go ahead to have that individual written up and can also referred the child there selves for truancy and/or anything else that may arise concerning a matter that can be handled through Teen Court. It should state what can be done with school disturbances in the by-laws if you have a specific book just for Teen Court. Rose. I can be reached at 301-952-5394.

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Franklin County Youth Court
Rex Mohon
Intake Officer
P.O. Box 425
36 Main Street East
Meadville, MS 39653
601-384-3667 Fax: 601-384-4349
fcycrt@telapex.com

We relate school offenses to applicable law violations. Disorderly conduct for fighting
Truancy and Educational Neglect Ungovernable Behavior for Status or non criminal behavior.

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Luna County Teen Court
Rosemary Chavira
Coordinator
321 W. Spruce
Deming, NM 88030
505-544-7377 Fax: 505-546-7377
dwi_teencourt@yahoo.com

I'm from the Luna County Teen Court in Deming, NM. I handle truancy and the community service guideline I use is 18 to 25 hours. They also must attend jury duty and bring in a donation of their choice.

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Willcox Youth Court
Sally White
Coordinator
Willcox Against Substance Abuse
City Magistrate Court
480 North Bisbee Avenue
Willcox, AZ 85643
520-384-4777 Fax: 520-384-1141
wasa@qwest.net
http://www.wasaonline.us

The Willcox Youth Court is set up to accept referrals from local courts, juvenile probation and school authorities. The school principals have the same referral form as the other referring agents - instead of attaching a copy of a ticket/summons, they attach a copy of the discipline write-up. Our YC has a list of possible sentences that can be given - this list was compiled by the youth and a support committee that contains representatives from all concerned parties and covers classes, screenings, community service, counseling, fines, written reports, letters of apology, jury duties, etc. This list can be modified or added to at any time by calling a committee meeting and presenting a needed change. A copy of this list is given to each jury after they have heard the case. The jury is always informed who made the referral, but the cases and sentencing are not treated any differently. Approximately 20% of our cases are school referrals--we find that usually the schools try their own methods first, then refer them to us when their ways do not appear to be making a change (fighting, possession of tobacco and continual disruptive behavior are the most common referrals, but we have had truancy and other school violations). The Youth Court team uses the student handbook section on violations the same way it uses the state law manuals in trying the cases.

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Ware Shoals Project Chance
Sherrie Free
School Resource Officer
Ware Shoals Police Department
56 South Greenwood Avenue
Ware Shoals, SC 29692
864-456-7923 Ext. 2040 Fax:
sherriefree@yahoo.com

Greenwood dist. 51- We use our youth court for all most of our level 3 and 4 disrupting school, truancy, petit larceny, alcohol are just a few examples. The suspensions are cut in have if they agree to come to Youth court.

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Tyler Teen Court, Inc.
Alison Ables
Coordinator
P.O. Box 488
101 N. Broadway
Tyler, TX 75710
903-595-1218 Fax: 903-526-2591
teencourt@goquest.com

Tyler Teen Court does take referrals on violations of school rules, however they are sent from our City Courts. Our schools are calling on campus security guards or the police in some cases to write tickets and then they are sent to us. We get kids with Disorderly Conduct Tickets (either for Fighting or Profanity) 24-35 hours of Community service and 2 jury terms; Assaults 35-44 hours and 3 jury terms; Criminal Trespassing 24-35 along with 2 jury terms; Criminal Mischief (breaking of windows, vending machines, etc) 35-44 hours 3 jury terms; Classroom Disruption 24-35 hours and 2 jury terms; Disruption of Transportation (the school bus) 24-35 hours and 2 jury terms.

With the Disorderly Conduct and Assault charges we usually have them attend a program called H.Y.P.E. (Helping Young People to Excel) This is done through a counseling center here locally and the kids attend 4 classes. The classes deal with anger management, peer pressure, decision Making and how to be successful as a teenager. If you need/want further information please don't hesitate to ask.

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Dona Ana County Teen Court
Antonia Hernandez
Director
2251 Calle De Santiago
P.O. Drawer W
Mesilla, NM 88046
505-647-2154 Fax: 505-647-2158
dacteencourt@zianet.com
www.zianet.com/dacteencourt

Our program participated in a pilot program with one of our middle schools. We found that changing the sentencing guidelines to meet the needs of the students was critical ex; a large portion of their community service hours were performed after school at study hall (thus helping them the students up to speed)- university students helped provide tutoring services for the students etc.. Trying to meet the time constraints of a semester were challenging.

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Chicago Police Peer Jury Programs
Clifton Underwood
Peer Jury Coordinator
Chicago Police Dept.
"3510 S. Michigan, Room 4081"
Chicago, IL 60653
312-745-5607 Fax: 312-745-6832
clifton.underwood@chicagopolice.org
 
In response to your request for information,
In Chicago, we currently have 18 Peer Jury Courts in operation. Over 60% of the referrals are from schools or school related incidents. Based on the nature of the incident, the sanctions can vary from an apology letter to a task of service within the school. All of the sanctions are based on getting the minor to realize what was wrong in the incident, and to give back to the victim. If additional information is needed, please don't hesitate to contact me. Also, because of the size of Chicago, we have implemented Peer Jury into many of the public schools.

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Syracuse City School District Student Court
Judy Wolfe
Program Supervisor
Syracuse City School District
"2400 Grant Blvd., Room 187"
Syracuse, NY 13208
315-435-6345 Fax: 315-435-4916
jwolfe26@scsd.us

We only hear school offenses but do not have guidelines, each case is so different, we try to sentence students to things that will be beneficial to them such as tutoring, joining a youth program, meaningful community service such as at a nursing home, book reports (about someone they admire), apologies, and essays such as how their behavior will affect their ability to reach their goals.

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