Advocates say Houston ISD makes enrolling hard for youth involved in the juvenile justice system

Houston, Texas (KTRK) – Jade Miller says all children deserve a second opportunity and the right to education.

But she does not think that this always happens in the Houston Independent School for Youth who are participating in the juvenile elimination system.

“They deserve to be among their peers,” said Miller, a senior participation analyst/analyst of policy analysts at the collective work of youth. ” “We have fixed the problem before. I don’t understand what the problem is with repair again.”

Sarah Pep, the lawyer for the disability rights in Texas in the program of defending the education education in Texas, said that three years ago, she and several other organizations sent a message to HISD concerns about the students who were accused of committing a crime or delaying registration on the public school campus.

Pep said that the supervisor at the time, Milard House, took their fears to the heart, and made changes for a period of time, things would improve.

“He and his team were really responding to our fears,” Bibi told 13 investigations. “I think it was a problem that did not realize that it was already happening because it tends to occur at the recorder level or sometimes at the main assistant level, and as soon as he drew our attention to the matter, he and his team worked and made a number of really effective changes.”

When the current supervisor Mike Miles took over and injured some of the programs that serve students at risk, Pep said it had seen an increase in young people who suffer from juveniles who have difficulty registration in HISD.

The Baby -led Harris Provincial Working Group has sent a message to HISD, which determines their concerns.

The 12 organizations that signed the message include deficit rights in Texas deficit and collective action of youth, as well as agencies such as the Harris County Monitoring Department, Harris Public County Office and the Houston Ministry of Health.

“This group met two months ago to write Houston’s speech and says:” Hey, we are really concerned about this, “Pep said. We have a lot of students who need school and face a problem with entering. “

The message determines the positive changes that occurred when they brought their concerns to the home in the 2022-23 academic year, saying that the boycott has developed policies and provided additional exercises to ensure the treatment of registrants in time.

Some of the recent issues that the group says include HISD, which claims that “the student is very old to register in middle school” or high school, or recommend obtaining students instead, according to the message.

Pep told some young people, that getting GED is a lot of what he asks because they are not exposed to the curricula necessary to successfully pass the test, which is also not free.

Bibi said: “I cannot tell you how our emotionally destroyed youth tend to have a lot in their lives to get this experience with the juvenile elimination system, then they want to return to school, and he wants things to be normal and then inform them of any variety of different reasons that are not accurate,” You cannot be here. “After that our young people go and sit at home and lose education and they know that they know that they are behind When they ultimately return, they sometimes feel that they have missed them a lot, and they are behind them away, it will be impossible to catch up with, and thus surrender while they leave, then we see them do not enjoy economic success options in their lives, and perhaps unfortunately, they return back through the justice system. “

Pep said that she understands the reason why the boycott is unwilling to register some students who manipulate justice on the traditional campus if they violate the school policy, but she does not understand the reason why some students do not give the option to register in a disciplinary alternative educational program.

The defenders ’message to HISD says that after three years ago, the number of disabled ties to Texas has decreased from the Harris County Monitoring Department, which asked for help in refusing to registration by 58 %.

But when Miles took over, there was “a dramatic rise in referrals from the monitoring department employees due to the refusal to join the area,” says the message.

“We have already received almost the same number of referrals to deny joining Houston during the first half of the current academic year as we received during the 2023-24 academic year,” according to the January 27, 205 message, the group sent HISD.

Texas deficit rights work with Vida Jones, whose son has a sixth -grade needs in HISD.

Her son was accused of committing a crime when he was 11 years old. After release from the juvenile elimination system, she said she wanted to return to school immediately and tried to register it the next day.

But she said that she was initially said that he could not register in school without producing his birth certificate first – a document that she said was lost during Hurricane Harvey.

The defenders say that HISD shows that students can be registered without a birth certificate as long as they provide it within 30 days. The son of Jones was previously registered in HISD before being charged, so she said that the boycott should have already had a copy of it.

“It was not logical at all why he was unable to register in school today,” Jones said. “I haven’t heard this before. I don’t care about what happened with these children. They go, close, go out, and need to go to school just like anyone else.”

HISD told us that they could not speak specifically to what happened in the Jones Child case, but he said they were working with the student’s family.

HISD initially told us that they would try to make us a person from the area to talk to him about these concerns, but they need more time because of the spring holiday.

13 Investigations extended the deadline for this story to give them an additional week, but HISD only provided us with a statement.

“The boycott has a comprehensive process when evaluating the enrollment of students who have been charged criminally. Each case is reviewed individually by a team of qualified employees in order to give priority to reach students to a safe education and quality. Since the letter, the boycott leaders met with representatives that could be that it could be that it could be there.

With the help of Texas Disability Rights, Jones managed to register her son at school within days of her release.

But defenders do not say that every child is lucky.

Pep said that students with enrollment problems can participate in any of the minor crimes to more serious crimes.

“We are working with many young people who are in the initial stages of the issue of their events, so they are waiting for the ruling, which means that they are still innocent, there was not enough to determine whether they had already participated in the behavior they accused of, however, the educational areas will continue to say,”

She said that going to school keeps young people stuck in a vicious course.

“We have seen a lot of young people to end up with the system while they were sitting at home waiting to be at school,” she said. “They really want to be there, however, there are many barriers that have been placed in place to prevent them from reaching their education.”

Pep said it is important for HISD and even other parents who may not want to participate in the juvenile elimination system in the semester of their child to put any bias they might have.

She said: “When we hear that a young man had a participation in the judicial system, we are rushing to judge this situation and thinking,” Oh, that the student has made a mistake, “when we talk about many young young men who made a mistake and who really need support and receive services and school.” “It is important to include them. Schools have many tools available to them to ensure safety and to ensure these students get the services and support they need so that they can succeed in the education environment.”

In a statement, HISD said that “HISD will search for specific concerns when identifying them and taking any necessary steps to solve enrollment problems.

HISD said: “Our priority is to act in the interest of the student, and we are committed to ensuring that all HISD students obtain a safe education and quality.”

Contact 13 investigations

Do you have advice? A problem in solving it? Send the advice below. If you do not have a picture or document to include it, just hit “skip the download” and send the details. (On the mobile phone? You can open our shape by eavesdrop here.)