Juvenile Justice, Success & Impact
New Plan for California Alternative School Aims to Disrupt the School-to-Prison Pipeline and Support Success in Adulthood
For decades, the Youth Law Center has led efforts to limit and end the incarceration of young people through policy reform, litigation, community mobilization, and public education. Funneling vulnerable children into the juvenile justice system causes trauma, disrupts learning, impedes healthy development, and heightens the risk of poor long-term educational, employment, and health outcomes. Our advocacy has focused on reforms to ensure children are not criminalized for being and acting like adolescents, that directly-impacted youth can lead system change, and on creating opportunities for success in life post-incarceration.
As we work toward the ultimate goal of ending the incarceration of children and youth, we have been leading the charge to create new postsecondary educational opportunities for youth who have experienced the juvenile justice system, both as an alternative to detention, and as a powerful intervention to build a brighter future. One of our most recent wins created clear pathways to higher education in California’s community colleges for the approximately 30,000 youth who are referred to California juvenile probation departments each year. This initiative, our Pathways to Higher Education Project, has established a legal and policy framework, ongoing state funding, and a network of support for California’s community colleges to help juvenile justice impacted students access a quality education that can change their life trajectories.
As we work toward the ultimate goal of ending the incarceration of children and youth, we have been leading the charge to create new postsecondary educational opportunities for youth who have experienced the juvenile justice system, both as an alternative to detention, and as a powerful intervention to build a brighter future.
The Pathways to Higher Education Project has also successfully advocated, both on the ground and through new legislation passed in California in 2022, for dual enrollment programs so youth in the juvenile justice system can enroll in college while completing high school. These programs offer youth opportunities to recover credits, receive college-preparatory instruction, build relationships with college professors and staff, and gain exposure to the college environment. Through our Pathways Project we have seen the power and the value of dual enrollment in offering a meaningful educational experience for students in the juvenile justice system, and that work undergirds our belief in a new alternative school model we are working with partners to build in the San Francisco Bay Area.
When the San Mateo County Office of Education (SMCOE) announced their innovative multi-year exploration to redesign the County Community School, the Youth Law Center partnered with the Law and Policy Lab at Stanford Law School to develop a proposal to transform the Gateway School through leveraging relationships with local community colleges. California’s county community schools, also known as alternative schools, are K-12 schools run by local county offices of education serving students who have been expelled from their local public schools, have attendance or behavioral issues, are experiencing homelessness, are impacted by the juvenile justice system, or are not attending any school. Academic outcomes for students attending county school programs have historically been quite poor, and the long term impacts of attending these schools on students are difficult to capture because the mobility of the students and their families make data collection challenging. Many of these alternative schools also play a significant part in the school to prison pipeline, and are long overdue for a significant overhaul.
These programs offer youth opportunities to recover credits, receive college-preparatory instruction, build relationships with college professors and staff, and gain exposure to the college environment.
The vision for the Gateway School in San Mateo County calls for repositioning Gateway as a new program that would be run by the COE and physically relocated to a campus of the San Mateo County Community College District, the District which is also home to Project Change, the oldest community college program in the state that provides support services to juvenile justice involved students. This alternative model helps address the challenge of offering diverse programs to a small and variable group of students by giving them access to a wide range of classes, support services, and student groups. It also tackles the need for a program that motivates students to change their lives and envision a better future. By placing the program within the San Mateo County Community College District, students will be physically immersed in a college environment and gain mentorship and positive role models through Project Change.
The redesign proposal includes recommendations that can be implemented before moving to the San Mateo Community Colleges, but ultimately, relocating the school program to a college campus is essential for real change. This is not only due to the resources available at the colleges, but also because being physically present on a college campus can have a powerful, transformative impact on students’ sense of identity. Discussions with the Youth Law Center’s Student Leadership Cohort—students who were formerly in the juvenile justice system and are now in college—consistently highlighted how important this experience is.
This alternative model helps address the challenge of offering diverse programs to a small and variable group of students by giving them access to a wide range of classes, support services, and student groups. It also tackles the need for a program that motivates students to change their lives and envision a better future.
In terms of what success would look like for the Gateway School project, in the short term, success means creating the designs and models needed at both the high school and college levels to reimagine what court and community schools can offer students. In the long term, success means developing a model that can be replicated across the state and nation to improve outcomes for young people involved in these systems.
Youth Law Center continues to work collaboratively with the San Mateo County Office of Education and the San Mateo County Community College District around implementation opportunities related to on-campus sites and buildings for this innovative program. The momentum and investment in this model continues to grow and the process to fully realize it alongside the community, students, and stakeholders is underway.
For more information about this project and our ongoing higher education advocacy, please visit ylc.org/pathways-to-higher-education.
April is Second Chance Month
In 2017, the United States Senate unanimously passed a resolution declaring April 2017 as “National Second Chance Month.” Spearheaded by the Prison Fellowship and more than 65 other organizations, Second Chance Month aims to raise awareness of the thousands of legal barriers people with criminal records face after leaving incarceration that impede their ability to secure essential services and opportunities, including employment, education, and housing, that could help them build successful lives beyond incarceration.
From 2018 through 2024, the White House continued this national designation and recognition of April as Second Chance Month, and during this period the ranks of Second Chance Month partners increased to more than 1,000 and include businesses and corporations, nonprofit organizations, and religious institutions.
Youth Law Center is proud to co-sponsor the Office of the California Foster Care Ombudsperson’s special film screening in recognition of Second Chance Month on Tuesday, April 8 at Noon in Sacramento.
Registration is free and required.
