Federal Resources

This tip sheet (PDF, 3 pages) from NDTAC aims to assist state and local juvenile justice and education agency administrators, including State Part D coordinators and the practitioners. The tip sheet helps to create strong working relationships that facilitate the development of high-quality education programs within juvenile justice settings. 

The Correctional Education Guidance Package informs the efforts of states, school districts, and juvenile justice facilities that serve system-involved youth. It includes recommendations and federal requirements for ensuring youth in confinement receive an education comparable to those provided in traditional public school settings. 

Under this program, state educational agencies (SEAs) must ensure that homeless children and youth have equal access to the same free, appropriate public education as other children and youth. Homeless children and youth should have access to the educational and other services that they need to enable them to meet the same challenging state student academic achievement standards to which all students are held. In addition, homeless students may not be separated from the mainstream school environment. States and districts are required to review and undertake steps to revise laws, regulations, practices, or policies that may act as a barrier to the enrollment, attendance, or success in school of homeless children and youth.

Resources developed by the National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities are now housed by the Center for Parent Information and Resources. 

In response to the Departments of Education and Justice’s Correctional Education Guidance Package, which includes recommendations and federal requirements for education programs in juvenile justice facilities, NDTAC will kick off a series of N&D InFocus programs. These programs will explore high-quality correctional education aligned with the five guiding principles that states and localities are implementing to prepare youth in their care for college and careers. The first event in the series, was held on March 18, 2 -3:30 p.m. EST, featured facilities and programs from around the country, as well as experts in the field and staff from the Departments of Education and Justice, who are leading the charge for quality correctional education. 

The Technical Assistance on Transition and the Rehabilitation Act (TATRA) Project offers Parent Information and Training Programs funded by the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) a variety of services to help them achieve their goals. Individualized services for each center are identified in technical assistance plans on an annual basis.

To address the challenges faced by students living in communities of concentrated poverty, Promise Neighborhoods grantees and their partner organizations will plan to provide services from early learning to college and career, including programs to improve the health, safety, and stability of neighborhoods, and boost family engagement in student learning.

In May 2010, the Center for Juvenile Justice Reform at Georgetown University released the monograph ”Addressing the Unmet Educational Needs of Children and Youth in the Juvenile Justice and Child Welfare Systems” (PDF, 74 pages), which examines a number of topics relevant to the education and experiences of youth in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. This new practice guide (PDF, 27 pages) developed by NDTAC examines the principle included in the monograph that quality education services are critical for youth involved with the juvenile justice and child welfare systems, and offers a range of practices and strategies that juvenile justice, child welfare, and education professionals can use to improve education programming and outcomes for youth in their care.

This letter to Chief State School Officers and State Attorneys General, issued by Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, highlights the importance of supporting youth in juvenile justice facilities. The letter also describes how federal funding can support improved services and indicates future work will involve clarifying the components of high-quality correctional education. 

The Technical Assistance ALLIANCE for Parent Centers National Center works with the six regional Parent Technical Assistance Centers (PTACs) to provide innovative technical assistance, up-to-date information and high-quality resources and materials to the parent centers.

EDJJ focuses on assisting practitioners, policymakers, researchers and advocates to identify and implement effective school-based delinquency prevention programs, education, and special education services in juvenile correctional facilities, and transition supports for youth re-entering their schools and communities from secure care settings.

On February 25, 2015, OCR and the Choice Program at UMBC partnered to host a symposium on supporting the education of young people in juvenile justice settings. At the event, young people who have had brushes with the law shared how the Choice Program is helping them to turn their lives around. 

Youth Indicators is a statistical compilation of data on the distribution of youth, their family structure, economic factors, school and extracurricular activities, health factors, and other elements that constitute the world of young people between the ages of 0-17 years. This report is created and published by Child Stats, a division of the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics. 

NDTAC held its 2015 National Conference, “Looking Ahead: Preparing for the Future of Your State Title I, Part D Program,” in Arlington, Virginia, in May 2015. The conference brought together Title I, Part D coordinators, experts in the field, and ED and NDTAC staff to explore federal and state topics related to effective program administration and the education of youth who are neglected, delinquent, or at risk. The session descriptions, slides, and handouts are now available on the NDTAC website. 

The Second Chance Pell Pilot program will test new models to allow incarcerated individuals to receive Pell Grants and pursue postsecondary education. The goal is to increase access to high-quality educational opportunities and help these individuals successfully transition out of prison and back into the classroom or the workforce. 

This resource provides an overview of data dashboards and demonstrates how dashboard data can be used to support Title I, Part D administration.

This tip sheet highlights key questions and areas to consider for Title I, Part D administrators regarding the selection of an appropriate pre-posttest for tracking student progress in reading and mathematics. It focuses on students receiving educational services in juvenile justice and child welfare settings. 

This Instructional Guide to Reporting Title I, Part D Data in the Consolidated State Performance Report (CSPR) for School Year (SY) 2015-2016 provides the latest updates for the SY 2014–15 Title I, Part D data collection. It highlights the importance of the federal data collection process, provides details about the CSPR and the EDFacts initiative, and includes comprehensive reporting instructions.​

NDTAC released this tip sheet providing an overview of relevant federal offices and programs, as well as data sources, that can be used to support state- and local-level decision-making and planning efforts of programs for youth who are neglected or delinquent. It also offers key questions that program administrators and practitioners can use to dig deeper into federal datasets and initiatives.

This toolkit provides guidance to educators to support a successful reentry system for formerly incarcerated youth and adults. It highlights the five critical components of an effective reentry system: program infrastructure, strategic partnerships, education services, transition processes, and sustainability. 

This guide (PDF, 54 pages) provides information for colleges and universities to help remove barriers that can prevent people with criminal records from pursuing higher education. It also includes recommendations for how admissions practices can be modified to reflect a more holistic review of applicants. 

This guide provides information on how colleges and universities can alter their use of criminal justice information in the higher education admissions process to remove barriers for students with criminal records. 

This Instructional Guide to Reporting provides the latest updates for the SY 2015–16 Title I, Part D data collection.

This toolkit includes evidence- and research-based practices, tools, and resources that educators, families, facilities, and community agencies can use to better support and improve the long-term outcomes for youth with disabilities in juvenile correctional facilities. The toolkit focuses on four key areas identified as part of an OSEP-sponsored focus group series on juvenile corrections: facility-wide practices, educational practices, transition and re-entry practices, and community and interagency practices.

This packet (PDF, 12 pages) provides checklists, guidance, resources, and templates of commonly required documents to help justice-impacted youth prepare for their future after leaving a facility.