The Support Center for Child Advocates (Child Advocates) and the Institute on Disabilities at Temple University (Temple IOD) collaborated over a multi-year period, with support from the Pennsylvania Developmental Disabilities Council, to understand existing barriers and outline concrete strategies to better support youth returning to a community school after exiting a residential placement in the child welfare, juvenile justice, and/or behavioral health systems.

Combining insights from in-depth interviews with a range of professionals across the state, relevant literature, and existing policy, our team of multi-disciplinary professionals identified five systemic barriers to successful school reintegration and compiled recommendations to improve six crucial areas when youth return to a community school. The team focused on strategies available to schools and system professionals at or after the time of a student’s discharge from a facility, and those that can be implemented with little or no cost.

The results of this work are shared below in several formats:

• A detailed report of findings – “School Reintegration for Youth Returning from Residential Placement: Voices from the Field and Recommendations for Pennsylvania” Click HERE
• A recorded training based on the report – “Draining the School-to-Prison Pipeline: Successful School Reintegration Following Congregate Care Placement” Click HERE (to access the recording, please register for Child Advocates Online)
• Nine newsletters, each highlighting a contributing factor to the school-to-prison pipeline, with an emphasis on the effects to students of color, students with disabilities, and students who identify as LGBTQIA+. 
  • Issue 1: Inaugural Issue of Draining the School-to-Prison Pipeline
  • Issue 2: Pennsylvania’s School Funding Trial: The “Need to Know”
  • Issue 3: Special Education and Its Impact on the School-to-Prison Pipeline
  • Issue 4: Testing Kids Into the School-to-Prison Pipeline
  • Issue 5: Truancy Consequences Open the Door to the School-to-Prison Pipeline
  • Issue 6: Using an Inclusive Curriculum to Decrease Student Exposure to the School-to-Prison Pipeline
  • Issue 7: Youth Homelessness and the School-to-Prison Pipeline
  • Issue 8: Alternative Education and the School-to-Prison Pipeline
  • Issue 9: Disrupting the School-to-Prison Pipeline through School Reentry