NCJ Number
234906
Date Published
July 2008
Length
10 pages
Annotation
This report presents data collected by Juvenile Court Services School Liaison (JCSL) staff across Iowa in the course of providing services to youth.
Abstract
Data compiled by JCSL staff are reported to the Division of Criminal and Juvenile Justice Planning (CJJP). Data forms are completed by the JCSLs only when "meaningful contact" between a student and a JCSL occurs. "Meaningful contact" is defined as having at least five contacts within a 60-day period regarding at least one of the referral reasons supplied on the form. Some of the key data collected and reported pertain to school attendance, truancies, tardiness, suspensions, law violations, and grade-point average. During the 2007-2008 school year, there were 125 school liaisons who reported on 4,317 students. During the 2007-2008 academic year, there were significant changes in the collection and reporting of performance measures. The most notable change included the addition of "Not Applicable" (NA) as an accepted response. This indicates that a youth did not have any reportable days or periods for the construct. In previous years, if a youth had no reportable days missed due to absence, for example, the liaisons were instructed to report zeroes for both pre-performance and post-performance. This practice affected the reliability of the data, since these youth would have reflected no change in performance in the annual report, although the youth should not have been included in the reporting of the construct. Data are presented in both tabular and graphic formats.