Topic: Accepting Referrals from Schools

Question: Does your program take school referrals such as fighting, theft and the like on school grounds?  We are in the process of this type of referral but would like input as how each program handles these cases. We do know that it will have to be done with parental consent.

Responses from Coordinators:

Volusia County Teen Court
Shirley Santillana Senior Coordinator
120 West Indiana Avenue Room 242
Deland, FL 32720
Phone: (904) 822-5703
Fax: (904) 740-5141
ssantillana@circuit7.org

We are in the process of taking school referrals. they will be processed on our arrest affidavit which has a block for civil citation. We also have an interagency agreement with the sao and the sheriffs office and other agencies. The referral will come directly from sro and go to their records department to be signed off by the Sgt. I will pick them up the next day and they will be handled as a regular case.

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Duncanville Teen Court
Olivia Harrington Teen Court Coordinator
P.O. Box 380280
Duncanville, TX 75138-0280
Phone: (972) 780-5063
Fax: (972) 780-6463
oharrington@ci.duncanville.tx.us

IF A TEEN IS FIGHTING IN SCHOOL, HE WILL RECEIVE A CLASS C TICKET FROM THE POLICE OFFICER. NO PARENTAL PERMISSION. HE HAS TO COME TO MUNICIPAL COURT WITH PARENTS, THAT IS WHEN HE MAY REQUEST TEEN COURT.

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Donald G. Learned, Ed.S. Teen Court Coordinator
20th Judicial District Teen Court
2ll0 Kansas Ave.,
Great Bend, Ks. 67530.
tc20ks@hotmail.com

I am glad to respond to this request. We are starting our fifth year of Teen Court here in the 20th Judicial District of central Kansas. We get all of our referrals from the county attorney from each of the counties we cover. Some areas of the country call these District Attorney, but we call them County Attorney. When the school has a problem with a juvenile like fighting, theft, drinking, and etc on school grounds, they call the police and the county attorney gets involved. Our schools follow a zero tolerance policy and call the police on these matters. Then the juvenile and parents must meet with the county attorney and if they have never been in trouble with the law, they have the option of going through our Teen Court system. This works great for us. The parents of course are involved when the county attorney is involved. Let me stress that all our referrals come from the county attorney. Our Judicial District has only about 60,000 citizens, but we have had 284 juveniles go through Teen Court since September, l997.

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Youth Court of Family Services
Craig Huxford Coordinator
Family Services
P.O. Box 22308
Green Bay, WI 54305-2308
Phone: (920) 436-4360. ext/ 1277
Fax: (920) 432-5966
fsteencourt@family servicesnew.org

Our youth court for 8-11 year olds takes referrals from schools for offences on school property and in school. The parent should be notified by the school that the youth is referred to youth court and we make a follow up call and ask the parent to bring the youth to our office for an assessment interview. Parent cooperation is a must for this referral source and age group.

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Susan Goettsch Director
Granite Falls Boys & Girls Club
P. O. Box 781
Monroe, WA 98272
Phone: (360) 794-4775
Fax: (360) 794-0381
susangoettsch@hotmail.com

We do school referrals. Please contact me directly for more information.

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Kansas City Youth Court
Ellen Suni Director
UMKC School of Law
5100 Rockhill Road
Kansas City, MO 64110-2499
Phone: (816) 235-2372
Fax: (816) 235-5276
SuniE@umkc.edu

We had a program, in conjunction with the Kansas City Schools, where we took referrals from the schools for what would constitute criminal activity (assault, possession of small quantity of drugs, destruction of property, etc.) at the schools. Our adjudication was in lieu of long-term suspension. In large part, this program worked well until they changed their offense categories and those that we handled were no longer subject to diversion. The one problem we encountered was with assaults. We are an adjudicatory court, and most assault defendants pled not guilty. We found that adjudication was not the best vehicle for handling these cases. They were usually part of a long-standing problem between students and mediation would have been more appropriate. We did get parental consent for our school cases as we do for all of our cases.

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Knox County Teen Court
Cathy Heimann Administrative Assistant
Knox County Teen Court
55 West Tompkins
Galesburg, IL 61401
Phone: (309) 345-3800
Fax: (309) 345-3897
knoxteenct@misslink.net

We do take school referrals--of course we now have a police member in the junior highs and the high school. We always have a police report, because if no police member is present the school usually calls one. We always have parent consent because the parent/guardian must accompany the youth to the initial interview. These cases are handled like our other ones.

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Pima County Teen Court
Adelita Grijalva Program Manager
Pima Prevention Partnership
330 North Commerce Park, #160
Tucson, AZ 85745
Phone: (520) 884-8799
Fax: (520) 884-8820
adelita_g@yahoo.com

Our school-based program, Teen Court in the Schools deals with all school related offenses where an arrest does not occur. In Arizona, when an assault or theft occurs, an officer must be called and that child may be referred to Pima County Teen Court.

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Tempe Justice Court Teen Court
William Graham Teen Court Moderator
1845 East Broadway., Ste. 8
Tempe, AZ 85282
Phone: (480) 966-0511
Fax: (480) 921-7413
DorothyTomkiewicz@mcjc.maricopa.gov

School related cases such as you have indicated, appear to be also criminal in nature and a violation of Arizona State Law as well as school policy. These cases should be reported to the police for action on their part. Arizona Law requires that any injury to a juvenile, other than accidental, must be reported to law enforcement for their disposition. If the act is non-criminal (no law) , then it can be put in one or our school teen courts. Our school teen court programs handle both criminal and school rule violations.

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Torrance County Teen Court
Debbie Miera Coordinator
P.O. Box 2834
Moriarty, NM 87035
Phone: (505) 832-6277
Fax: (505) 832-4136
bkmiera@aol.com

Our Teen Court Program takes referrals from the 3 school districts in our area for fighting, theft, smoking on campus, and property damage (graffiti, etc.) We have just recently started taking referrals for truancy. The students are referred for a first time offense up to excessive truancy. The principals meet with the student and parents and have them fill out the referral form. The schools are reporting great success with the truancy referrals. If the student does not complete their sentence within 90 days, the referral is returned to the school and the school refers it to the Juvenile Probation Office. One portion of their sentence is mandatory attendance monitoring. I have the parents sign a permission slip at the time of sentencing allowing me to monitor their attendance for 90 days. If they have one "unexcused" absence during that time they are referred back for noncompliance. Previously students with a truancy problem were given out of school suspension...this is a much better alternative.

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Fort Worth Teen Court
Susan Wolf Teen Court Coordinator
1000 Throckmorton
Fort Worth, TX 76102
Phone: (817) 871-7642
Fax: (817) 871-8670
wolfs@ci.fort-worth.tx.us

We take all Class C citations, except Tobacco, given by Fort Worth Police Officers. Since most of the schools have officers who give citations we treat the school tickets just like all the others. We are also taking the truancy tickets and treating them as normal. The truancy teens also have other requirements assigned by the Judge that is handled by the truancy staff. We just report the completion or non completion of community service and jury.

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Dixie County Teen Court
Christy Keen Director
P.O. Box 1180
Cross City, FL 32628
Phone: (352) 498-1263
Fax: (352) 498-1404
Keen_chr@dixie.k12.fl.us

Yes, I take school referrals. The administration just sends them to me as a diversion of what they may receive from them. Example- Instead of receiving out of school suspension from administration, for a serious offense committed on campus, they would go through the Teen Court process. Administration only sends those who are good candidates for the program. People who have the potential of possibly getting involved in the program, as a member, in the future or those who are in need of other services which I can arrange, taking the burden off of school administration, who deal with so many kids each day. It is clear at the intake process, with the parent & student, that if Teen Court sanctions are not met as recommended, the case will divert back to school administration.

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Cattaraugus County Youth Court
Laurie Peterson Youth Court Program Coordinator
100 Main Street, Suite 1
Salamanca, NY 14779
Phone: (716) 945-5392, ext. 6205
Fax: (716) 945-1296
laurpe@sal.cattco.org

Cattaraugus County Youth Court has school-based youth court sites that handle violations of the Student Codes of Conduct as an alternative to detention/suspension. We do not do causes that would constitute "assault", but one of our schools has a "no physical contact" rule, so we do take cases involving pushing, shoving, etc. We have had petit larceny and harassment cases, that would not have resulted in the issuance of appearance tickets to Probation. If the parents would be notified under the traditional School Administration discipline policy, then they must be notified and give consent for participation in Youth Court. If formal charges are pressed for incidents that happened on school grounds, those cases follow the same route as community-based referrals and their hearings are sent to our community-based courts.

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City of Lewisville Teen Court
Anne Dubinsky Teen Court Coordinator
P.O. Box 299002
Lewisville, TX 75029
Phone: (972) 219-3671
Fax: (972) 219-3414
adubinsk@cityoflewisville.com

Our court hears class disruption, disorderly conduct-fighting/language, tobacco possession from the schools. I mention these as they are the most common that occur at school. These violations are Class C misdemeanors in Texas along with all the others we prosecute, such as Theft under $50, Criminal Mischief, Minor in Possession of Alcohol, among others. All of our cases originate in Municipal Court and then are referred to Teen Court. In Teen Court, there is no difference between a citation issued at school and one issued elsewhere.

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Cumberland County Teen Court
Megan McFadyen Teen Court Program Director
c/o Cumberland Co. Dispute Resolution Center
155 Gillespie Street
Fayetteville, NC 28301
Phone: (910) 486-9465
Fax: (910) 486-8369
bpeaceful@aol.com

We do take referrals from the School Resource Officers for incidents that occur on school grounds. In fact, about 60% of our referrals come from the schools.

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Peer Jury Program
Brian Leverenz Community Service Administrator
New Trier Township
739 Elm Street
Winnetka, IL 60093
Phone: (847) 446-8203
Fax: (847) 446-1743
brianbikes@yahoo.com

We only accept referrals from police departments that participate in program. Offender must have plead guilty, sign a waiver, and appear with parents.

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Wright County Teen Court
Nathan Miller Probation Officer
Wright County Court Services
10 2nd St, NW Rm 141
Buffalo, MN 55313
Phone: (763) 682-7712
nathan.miller@co.wright.mn.u

We do not take referrals directly from the schools for the Teen Court program. If they do not want to contact the police, we can use a Community Conference/Victim Offender Mediation session if appropriate. Schools have really appreciated this option for some of their cases.

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LaPine Teen Court
Mary Fleischmann Program Coordinator
P.O. Box 2035
La Pine, OR 97739
Phone: (541) 536-5002
Fax: (541) 536-5766
Mary_Engstrom@co.deschutes.or.us

I only take referrals from schools if the youth has been cited by the School Resource Officer, otherwise there is no reason to hold the youth accountable, or a way to deal with noncompliance issues. If a parent calls me regarding concerns they have with their child, and the child has not been cited; then I will work with that child on a one to one basis, with parental permission. If a youth gets into situations where his behavior requires a referral...then it is either dealt with with the schools internal policy, referred to the School Resource Officer for follow up or may be referred to a Community Resolution Mediation program.

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Musselshell County Youth Peer Court
Staci Moulton Coordinator
Musselshell County
431 Main Street
Roundup, MT 59072
Phone: (406) 323-2835
Fax: (406) 323-4000
ypc@midrivers.com

We do take school referrals but after many "lessons" I will give you a few ideas to make it go smoother:

• Require that if the school wishes to use the program as a discipline option they put it in the student handbook.
• Require that the school have a "fall-back scenario" for if the youth do not comply or if they or their parents choose for them not to participate. IE Saturday school, 2 days suspension or what ever they see as relevant to the situation and get those consequences in writing from the school so everyone is on the same page and the rules are equal for everyone. We are just in the process of all of this now because of some problems we had with having to vague of an agreement with the school. Our problem was not with the school but with the parent wanting to "push the rules" so to speak.

We use a generic school referral form that we worked out with our school district which includes:

• Student and parent info
• Offense
• Details of the incident
• Witness info
• Victim info
• Date to appear before the Peer Court Coordinator with a parent

When the youth and the parent appear we explain the program, its purpose, and have them sign the same agreement to participate as we have all of our other youth sign.

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Brevard County Teen Court
Sid Ladow Teen Court Coordinator
Office of the State Attorney, 18th Circuit
2725 Judge Fran Jamieson Way Bldg. D
Viera, FL 32940
Phone: (321) 617-7294
Fax: (321) 617-7511
sladow@statty18.brevard.fl.us

The philosophy of the Brevard County, Florida Teen Court is that if it's a crime, then it has to be written up by a police officer. We have looked into school referrals but they are not satisfactory for our needs. The Brevard County State Attorney owns the Teen Court which is co-located in the Juvenile Division. When criminal cases are written by a Police Officer, the clerk of court, Department of Juvenile Justice and the Office of the State Attorney each get a copy of the report. Approximately 5,000 juvenile cases a year come into the Juvenile Division. An intake attorney reviews each of them. The felonies go to the judge and most of the misdemeanors are made available for our Teen Court. We usually handle about 1250 cases a year in Teen and Peer Court. We won't touch anything without a Police report. The retail thefts go to Peer Court and the rest go to Teen Court. School referrals instead of police reports are usually made in order to cover the fact that a problem exists in the school. No principal wants a bunch of police reports coming out of his school. We have School Resource Officers in each of our schools and they are not reluctant to write a police report on an incident. Direct referrals offer an excuse not to write a report. By not taking direct referrals, it forces the Principal to take disciplinary action for violations of school policy like wearing a short skirt or chewing gum in class. Our records are all on a computer and each offense that a child has increases the likelihood that they will get some serious services. If you can't track the number of times a kid has been into a scrape with the law, chances are that the family will not receive any services. We were concerned that referrals for fights would open a can of worms, especially when it comes to restitution.

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Wichita County Teen Court
Myra Weeks Coordinator
Wichita County Courthouse
900 7th Street, Room 212
Wichita Falls, TX 76301-2482
Phone: (940) 715-8575 or (940) 766-8177
Fax: (940) 715-8576
Myra.Weeks@co.wichita.tx.us

In Wichita Falls, if a youth commits those type offenses they are cited for Disruption of Class, Assault, etc. Those fines run about $250 unless it can be gang related or offensive such as offensive gestures. Those fines are $500.00. We run them through just like any other referral. They are cited though!

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Olathe Youth Court
Kory Norris Coordinator
c/o Olathe Dist. Schools, USD #233
1021 South Pitt P.O. Box 2000
Olathe, KS 66063-2000
Phone: (913) 780-7046
Fax: (913) 780-7045
norrisk@mail.olathe.k12.ks.us

All our referrals come from DA's office after police (SRO, if incidence occurs on school property).  For younger student, DA often considers Administrators opinion of family and student (as to whether youth court is appropriate for youth and family), yet not always.

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Pender County Teen Court
Jim Price
Community Mediation Center of Cape Fear, Inc.
P.O. 108-A Cinema Drive
Wilmington, NC 28403
Phone: (910) 362-8000
Fax: (910) 362-8008
cmcteencourt@aol.com

There are sheriff's deputies at each middle and high school in my county. All fights and thefts are processed through them. The deputies often sent the case directly to me without filing a petition. There is always a misdemeanor charge hanging over the youth's head.

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Winnebago County Teen Court
Shirley Zahn Program Coordinator
504 Algoma Boulevard
Oshkosh, WI 54901
Phone: (920) 236-1120
Fax: (920) 303-3030
szahn@co.winnebago.wi.us

We accept referrals from incidents at school. Usually the police-school liasion officer at the school has written a citation/ticket to the youth for whatever the violation was....disorderly conduct, battery, theft, truancy, etc. The officer then gives out a Teen Court brochure to appropriate youth---first time offenders, that meet the program criteria.

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Delaware Teen Courts, Inc.
Angela Ciampa-Gilbert Teen Court Coordinator
PO Box 1251
Dover, DE 19903
Phone: (302) 698-3264
Fax: (302) 698-3267
deteenct@intercom.net

Our program handles school fights (Disorderly Conduct & Offensive Touching) as well as school theft the same as we accept our usual DC and OT offenses. They are required to take a conflict resolution class if it was a fight along with our teen sentencing options. I have a contact person in all of our schools that is familiar with the Teen Court process, so at any time the school facility can ask them questions.

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Clinton County Youth Court
Kimberley Barrows Youth Court Coordinator
137 Margaret Street
Plattsburgh, NY 12901
Phone: (518) 565-4750
Fax: (518) 565-4775
BarrowsK@co.clinton.ny.us

Our program funding currently states that our referrals are court diversion, therefore the juveniles would have had to broken a law and referrals would then come from the Police Dept.'s or Probation Dept. A school based initiative would be great. Another problem with school based diversion programs is that our program is voluntary, it diverts kids from court, so what are we diverting from? It needs to have some substantial leverage.

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Dundalk High School Student Court
James Haupt Coordinator
1901 Delvale Avenue
Baltimore, MD 21222
Phone: (410) 893-7100
Fax: (410) 887-7025
JEHAUPT@home.com

We, at Dundalk High, have taken some assaults, however they must be of a minor nature. Those that are more serious or physical are both suspended from school and the participants receive a citation for juvenile arbitration. Our SRO has been trying to get some of the assault cases to student court, but it is the administrator’s decision. We have not had any theft cases. I do not know what other cases the question refers to, but if you check the manual we sent you and look under the offenses (categories) that may also give you some ideas. The manual also contains copies of the forms we use. Yes parents MUST sign the forms to allow their child to both attend student court and do the sanctions.

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Kenai Peninsula Youth Court
Ginny Espenshade Coordinator
355 Pioneer Avenue, #103
Homer, AK 99603
Phone: (907) 235-4985
Fax: (907) 283-4017
youthct@xyz.net

In 2001 the Kenai Peninsula Youth Court branch in Homer, Alaska, partnered with an elementary school in town to train 5th and 6th graders to serve as assistant Judges and as attorneys for an in school Youth Court, which deals with school offenses. (A High School Judge from our community youth court serves as Head Judge.) Referrals are made by the prinicpal with the parent's consent. Over half of last year's sixth graders are now taking further training to serve in our community court, their training and experience in the school court has made them much better prepared than a typical 7th grader.  We are also developing a mediation component, having provided a 40 hour mediation training to 10 of our attorneys. They are in the process of contacting local high and middle school administrators to offer mediation services for in- school disputes, in conjunction with volunteer adult mediators, using a co-mediation model. We anticipate that this component will receive referrals of cases that fall short of criminal charges.

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Family Services Youth Court
Kathleen LaPlant Coordinator
Family Services
P. O. Box 22308
Green Bay, WI 54305-230
Phone: (920) 436-4360
Fax: (920) 432-5966
teencourt@familyservicesnew.org

Our Youth Court program does take referral such as fighting (disorderly conduct) theft, bullying, ect. The school staff contact the parent to make them aware that a referral has made. From there the parents sign release of info. forms ( for the school), confidentiality forms, and agreement of service forms.

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Thomas Hanover

Yes we do take referrals from problems of these types in our schools. We process them the same as any other case. The victim whether it is the school itself or a specific teacher supplies us with a fact sheet as to what happened and we put the case into court like any other case. We do not get parental consent on these cases as it is up to the school if they wish to pursue in court. They notify the parents that this is what they are going to do. The parents have only one option and that is to have the case sent to our State run Family Court system which is a more serious venue. When the parents are informed of this, they quickly go for the youth court process.  In our state we also can utilize our court for truancy cases. We again file the regular court paperwork and the schools supply a copy of their students attendance record listing illegal absences. We then process the case like any other case.

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Abilene Teen Court
Deydra Stevenson Teen Court Coordinator
P.O. Box 60
Abilene, TX 79604
Phone: (915) 676-6402
Fax: (915) 676-6286
stevensd@abilenetx.com

Abilene Texas Teen Court does accept theft, disorderly conduct, disruption of classroom, from our school system. Since most of these violations are committed by age groups 10-12, these defendants have their own Teen Court Program, where the questions are asked by the judge, there is a panel of 6 jurors (age 10-12) and the punishment is jury duties. Most of our community service agency don't allow for these defendants to complete their community service hours at their agencies because of the nature of their crimes and age group, so it was hard trying to find locations for this age group to complete community service hours, so instead they do more jury terms than the 13-18 age group who do more community service hours.

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Santa Barbara Teen Court
Ramon Velazquez Lead Case Manager
The Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse
PO Box 28
Santa Barbara, CA 93102
Phone: (805) 963-1433
Fax: (805) 963-4022
teencrt@silcom.com

The Santa Barbara Teen Court does not typically receive direct Teen Court referrals from the schools. Any offenses committed on school grounds tend to be dealt with law enforcement, which places the student in "the system." We, hence, receive the referral through the Probation Department. Our schools are more than welcomed to refer their students to us, but usually do not. Schools tend to use our "Jury Duty" as a consequence on many occasions, though.

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Teen Court of Sarasota, Inc.
M. Kathleen Self Executive Director
P.O. Box 48927
Sarasota, FL 34230
Phone: (941) 951-4278
Fax: (941) 951-4277
fatc@gte.net

Our Teen Court in Sarasota County handles school referrals. They may be criminal offenses that occur on a campus. The school administration and victim first determine that the case is appropriate for Teen Court. The cases are referred on the school's Disciplinary Action Form and sent directly to this office. Prior to sending the referral to us the family and school administration meet and must all, including the victim, agree with the process. In most instances the period of suspension from school is shortened or eliminated if they agree to Teen Court. If the child does not successfully finish our program then the case goes back to the administration and they then handle the matter. We have a very high completion rate among those referrals and actually quite a few stay active as volunteers with us.

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Village of Owego Youth Court
Eric Watkins Coordinator
Youth Services Unit
Owego Police Department
Owego, NY 13827
Phone: (607) 687-2233
Fax: (607) 687-2235
juvenile@stny.rr.com

A: In our program we essentially take any and all referrals from our school district--as long as the first-time offender admits to his/her offense and is willing to take full responsibility. The thing that makes these referrals different is that they are not law enforcement based--i.e. they lack the "teeth" if the offender does not complete their sentence (such as being sent back to probation or family court). Therefore I require that the referring school administrator provide the consequences for non-completion. In a recent case we had three 8th graders who showed up intoxicated for a school dance--the principal took away all privileges (dances, field-trips & sports) until the sentence was completed (there was also an implied threat of being held-back from the high school!). The offenders completed their sentences without incident. I also maintain a very positive relationship with my schools.

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Nineteenth Judicial Circuit Teen Court
John Vanilla Teen Court Coordinator
218 South 2nd Street
Fort Pierce, FL 32950
Phone: (561) 785-5801
Fax: (561) 785-5803
johnv@co.st-lucie.fl.us

Yes we do take referrals like this, however they must come through the State Attorneys office or through local law enforcement office or through school resource officer.

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