The Department of Children and Families is working to improve education for incarcerated kids, or children living in juvenile justice facilities for other reasons.
The brand-new Juvenile Justice Educational Unit is behind those efforts.
In an exclusive interview with NBC Connecticut, the new DCF team said they hope to get kids on the right path through education.
“They've been in situations where they may have ended up in these juvenile detention centers, but they're also teenagers,” John Tarka, DCF Juvenile Justice Educational Unit assistant superintendent, said. “They're also young people who are developing decision making skills, and as educators we have to work and help develop those skills so that don't make the same mistake twice.”
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Dr. Glen Worthy, Tarka and Tina Mitchell, the three members of the unit, say their mission is to create second chances through education.
“Our overall mission and goal is to ensure that our kids are having a positive and effective educational experience while they are there in the facilities,” Worthy, DCF Juvenile Justice Educational Unit superintendent, said. “I think we have a big job ahead of us, right. A lot of our kids are three or four grades below grade level.”
The Juvenile Justice Educational Unit was created by Public Act 21-174, passed by state lawmakers in June of 2021. Worthy joined DCF in March to launch the unit, bringing a background in education. He also brought on Mitchell and Tarka as assistant superintendents.
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The two newest staff members have long histories of working in education as well.
“I think we take a personal stake in this, right, coming from a traditional high school seeing kids coming back from the our facilities, you know, and not having any plan for those kids,” Worthy said.
Mitchell and Tarka have been on the job for eight days.
The team has already toured one juvenile justice facility, and they will visit all 15 in Connecticut in the upcoming weeks.
“I'm really looking forward to getting into the facilities and understanding more, and seeing how we could support the learning and the teaching,” Tarka said.
They already have a list of objectives to improve education for kids in these facilities, who are in class for five or six hours a day. The focus is on students in grades eight through 12, on track to get a high school diploma.
Some of the unit’s goals include getting student records transferred quickly, providing professional training and support for teachers, improving technology, and identifying special education students and English learners.
“We went to a facility yesterday. They had one student who was learning English there, they didn't have the resources currently to provide that,” Mitchell, DCF Juvenile Justice Educational Unit assistant superintendent, said. “We're hoping to be able to better serve those students, as well as the special education students that require more services.”
In the next few weeks, the unit is also hiring a dozen pupil service specialists. Candidates are currently being interviewed.
“Pupil service specialists will be working to ensure that they have a smooth transition back to their environment, and also can help bring along some of the learning and growth that they've had while they're in the center, making sure that it continues after they leave,” Tarka said.
Worthy said the unit will be following students’ progress for months after they leave a juvenile justice facility and return to high school.
“Continue to make sure that we monitor those kids three months after their release, to ensure they're going back to school,” Worthy said. “I think that's the biggest thing that we're hoping to achieve, make sure they're staying in class, and going to class and being productive.”
Where relevant, they will even connect kids to job training.
“We really want to make sure that we're providing you know, academic, social and job wraparound services, so they have a very good second chance. The best second chance they can get,” Tarka said.
The end goal of these efforts is to help students transition back to high school, and ultimately, successfully re-enter society.
“If we're teaching them to even do the basic skills that they need to be able to survive in the world, then we're creating another path for them,” Mitchell said. “They don't have to go through whatever that has gotten them to the facility to begin with. We're giving them another option, another opportunity, and guiding them hopefully to that positive path.”
