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THEIRS: Juvenile justice reform burdens state's schools

The Rapid City Journal - 12/16/2017

Can schools deal effectively with students who refuse to show up or who get caught selling drugs, using drugs or otherwise breaking the law? Should teachers and other school staff be asked to put up with students who simply don't or won't respect their peers or school.

Since 2015, schools have been asked by default to shoulder more of the burdens associated with truant or otherwise problematic students, thanks to a set of juvenile justice system reforms made that year.

So far, the reforms have done almost exactly what they were designed to do. Fewer kids are being taken out of their communities and placed at such facilities as the former Star Academy near Custer State Park in the Black Hills. The number of juveniles being held at county level juvenile detention centers also has fallen.

As reported recently in the Capital Journal, according to a draft of the annual report required by the 2015 legislation, the initial data indicate a decrease in juvenile recidivism, less frequent revocation of probation, and positive impacts of Functional Family Therapy.

That's really good news.

The kids who used to be sent to places such as the Star Academy didn't just disappear, though. In fact, they're remaining in their schools that often don't have the staff or programs they need to handle those kids.

Pierre School District Superintendent Kelly Glodt said Monday during the Pierre School Board's December meeting that a recent survey found that not one of the state's school superintendents felt that the juvenile justice reforms had had a positive impact on schools.

Why? Well, students that cause problems or fall behind because they don't come to school, tend to take up an inordinate amount of teachers', administrators' and counselors' time. One or two students who cause problems can crowd out other students who don't cause problems but still need help, thus making an educator's already difficult job that much harder.

The 2015 legislation did indeed provide additional funding for outside counseling services. Of course, South Dakota has a chronic shortage of trained counselors. A program can be fully funded, but if it can't be fully staffed, it's still not going to work. The counselors the state does have typically don't live in rural areas.

School superintendents also are saying that more students are in need of counseling for non-academic issues. More students are suffering from emotional and social problems, which school counselors are having to help address. Here again, there just aren't enough counselors to go around.

Juvenile justice reform was a necessary step for the state to take and it has, mostly, been successful. But it might be time to recognize the initiative's shortcomings and give schools more tools to deal with the extra burden it has caused.

A good step would be for the Legislature to find a way to help schools pay for more guidance counselors.