Page 103 - Impact: Collected Essays on the Threat of Economic Inequality

the age,” New York remains one of two states continuing to process 16- and 17-year-old youths as adults in the criminal justice system .14 Hopefully, such rehabilitative programs will be effectively implemented at Rikers Island .
With increased attention focused upon the need for rehabilitative justice measures for court involved youth comes the recognition that restorative, rather than suspension and other punitive, measures should be adopted in our school systems .15 Of course, programs that are necessary and appropriate in detention facilities may not be those readily adopted in schools . However, the concepts underlying trauma-informed care and other programs addressed to emotional and behavioral change are comparable . At the very least, our educational systems should implement effective approaches as early as possible in children’s lives to assist them in coping with traumatic experiences . Necessarily, each school, city, district, and state will have a unique approach depending on the needs of the institution and its students .
This essay describes trauma-informed care approaches that have been utilized successfully in schools in other jurisdictions and argues that this, among other approaches, should be adopted in the educational system in New York City . Waiting until youth enter a jail setting is too late . Of course, each school, city, district, and state will have a unique approach depending on the needs of the institution and its students .
New York City’s education system has the largest school district in the country, with over 1,800 public schools serving 1 .1 million students .16 Some of those students are able to access an innovative, successful, and competent education .17 However, many students do not have these same opportunities, notably students in low-income areas of Brooklyn and the Bronx . Schools face increasing cuts in resources and aids, with spending on arts and drama cut and support staff laid off .18 There is a stunning lack of coordinated services, a high reliance upon suspensions, and
14 North Carolina is the other state that continues to treat 16- and 17-year-olds as adults, although there is proposed legislation to change this. Campaign Fact Sheet, Raise the Age Campaign Fact Sheet, raise The age ny, http:// raisetheageny.com/get-the-facts (last visited June 7, 2015).
15 shaena m. fazal, esq., youTh advocaTe programs, policy and advocacy cenTer, safely home (June 2014), available at http://www.yapinc.org/Portals/0/Documents/Safely%20Home%20Preview/safelyhome.pdf (explaining the importance of community-based programs and their effectiveness over traditional incarceration models).
16 About Us, nyc dep’T of educaTion, http://schools.nyc.gov/AboutUs/default.htm (last visited Apr. 18, 2015).
17 Many of the city’s top public schools, including the so-called “exam schools” (such as Stuyvesant, Brooklyn Tech, and Bronx Science) as well as specialty art schools provide top-notch educations to New York City children. However, these schools have a selective admissions program and lack diversity. The overall New York City public school system has almost 30 percent Black students and about 40 percent Latino. However, of the 5,103 students who were offered admission into the eight specialized high schools for the 2015-2016 entering year, only 5 percent were Black students and 7 percent were Latino. Elizabeth Harris, Lack of Diversity Persists in Admissions to New York City’s Elite High Schools, n.y Times, Mar. 5, 2015, http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/06/nyregion/lack- of-diversity-persists-in-admissions-to-selective-new-york-city-high-schools.html?_r=0; Alia Wong, The Cutthroat World of Elite Public Schools, The aTlanTic, Dec. 4, 2014, http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/12/ the-cutthroat-world-of-elite-public-schools/383382/.
18 Fernanda Santos, Lessons in Austerity: How City Principals Make Budgets Work, n.y. Times, Aug. 17, 2011, http:// www.nytimes.com/2011/08/18/nyregion/five-new-york-city-school-principals-talk-budget-cuts.html; Accelerating Arts Education Funding Cuts and Loss of Arts Teachers Paint Grim Picture for City Schools, The cenTer for arTs educaTion (June 2011), http://www.cae-nyc.org/sites/default/files/docs/Research-Brief-Accelerating-Arts-Education- Cuts-June-2011.pdf.
Lessons from New York City
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