New York City is failing to provide basic educational services to youth in juvenile detention, according to a new report released this morning by Advocates for Children of New York.
The group also notes that the city’s Department of Education has failed to report key data from Passages Academy — which has locations throughout the city serving court-involved youth — leaving questions about attendance and educational progress.
The findings come as the City Council prepares to hold an oversight hearing Monday on school access inside juvenile detention facilities. The report draws on two years of city data and testimony from the organization's clients. Together they paint a picture of a vulnerable group of young people contending with service gaps and a lack of support who often return home without a solid school placement.
The report urges the city to ensure every public school has a mental health clinic or a community provider; to fund more specialized programming for students with emotional and behavioral challenges; and to improve the process for students leaving detention by employing more transition specialists and strengthening support at the public schools’ Family Welcome Centers.
“The biggest takeaway is that court-involved youth have a level of need that simply isn’t being met,” said Rohini Singh, who directs the advocacy organization’s School Justice Project. “There should be targeted investments and interventions to ensure they’re getting an appropriate education before they enter detention, while they’re there and when they come home.”
Onika Richards, a spokesperson for the city’s education department, said in a statement the school system took the concerns seriously and was "continuing to work across our agency to ensure court-involved youth receive the comprehensive transition support they deserve back to their school communities" while working to secure school assignments that meet individual students' needs.
"This work is ongoing, and we will continue to prioritize strengthening any necessary interventions and removing any barriers that have disrupted student learning in the past," the statement said. It didn't address the report's specific recommendations or findings.
The student body at Passages Academy facilities is constantly in flux, according to the report. Many students attend for less than a year. During the 2023-24 school year, the academy served 810 young people between the ages of 13 and 20; the following year, the figure was 1,040.
Nearly all students are boys, a third of whom are in foster care. All of the students come from low-income families. They’re more than twice as likely to have learning disabilities and more than 17 times as likely to have emotional disabilities, according to data analyzed by the group. At least half read at a level far below their peers upon enrollment. Some students attend schools in secure detention facilities, others attend class in the placement facilities where they live, and still others go to community-based sites.
The report cites overcrowding at the secure facilities as an ongoing issue, drawing from previous Gothamist reporting that revealed classrooms were being repurposed as dorms, leaving students unable to attend school for days at a time. However, the scope of the disruption is difficult to quantify. As the report notes, the city failed to disclose the average or median number of days students were absent while in custody.
What is clear, according to the report, is that even when classes are in session, many youths aren’t getting the educational support to which they’re entitled under state and federal law. For instance, more than one in six students with disabilities did not receive their legally required Special Education Plan within 30 days of enrollment.
Though the city did not release more specific data about the percentage of students receiving special education services, or special education evaluations while in custody, Singh said “the experience of our clients … does indicate to us that students are not receiving the services that they're entitled to, not getting the evaluations that they need while they're in these facilities.”
English Language Learners also went without services, according to the report. Of the 216 students who qualified as English learners over the two-year time period analyzed, roughly a quarter received no English as a New Language instruction.
Still, Singh said, when students do make it to class at Passages and get the right support, the group has found they can do well.
“The class sizes are much smaller than they are in the community," she said. "They're getting more individual attention.”
The problems are largely related to special education and the transition back to the community, she said. The report features examples from a handful of the group’s clients.
One mother said she had no idea what sort of education her son was receiving while at Crossroads Juvenile Center, including whether he was getting support for his emotional disability or earning high school credits. He left the center without a school placement.
An eighth grade student fell through the cracks when the city’s tracking system didn’t note changes to his individualized education program, resulting in him being placed in the wrong educational environment following his discharge from non-secure detention.
Another parent described getting no support or guidance in finding an appropriate school for her son even though enrollment was a condition of his release.
What’s more, according to the report’s data analysis, half the students who transferred from Passages to a city school or equivalency program missed more days of school than they attended in the two months following their release.
“It's really difficult to find programs and school communities that are able to reengage these young people,” Singh said. “Unless you have an education advocate or an attorney, parents are left to navigate this very daunting public school system by themselves.”
This story has been updated to reflect a statement from the city Department of Education.
