A tutoring session at Maya Angelou PCS. (courtesy Maya Angelou PCS)

Every Wednesday afternoon, students at the Maya Angelou public charter high school in Washington, DC, pile out the doors of their school and hit the streets—headed not for trouble but to their part-time jobs. They'll each put in several hours at nearby elementary schools, at PricewaterhouseCoopers and other area businesses, and in law firms, doctor's offices and nonprofits.

Many of these kids have, at one time or another, been labeled "problems." They have not succeeded in traditional school settings—some have officially dropped out, others were expelled, still others just sort of drifted. Roughly 30 percent of Maya Angelou students are or have been involved in the juvenile justice system, foster care system, or both.

These part-time jobs are part of the curriculum at Maya Angelou, which has two campuses and serves 230 students. The rest of the week, students attend classes from 9 a.m. to 4:15 p.m.. Classes are designed to be relevant and engaging, with class size ranging from 5 to 15 students.

After school, students spend an hour on electives like drama, art, photography, or athletics. They eat dinner together at 5:30 p.m.—three meals a day are provided free of charge to all students—and then settle in to the library for mandatory study hall and homework help until 7:15 p.m., when they're free to go home.

It's an unconventional approach borne of an effort to reach students failed by more traditional schools—particularly teens in the juvenile justice system. Since earning charter status in 1998, Maya Angelou can no longer limit enrollment to youth in the juvenile justice system as it once did—but it continues to work with judges, social workers, and juvenile agencies to reach out to these and other disconnected students.

A Proven Benefit

Numerous studies show that one of the most effective ways to help young people in juvenile justice get back on track is by advancing their educational skills, according to the National Center on Education, Juvenile Justice, and Disability. Reconnecting these kids to school has been shown to reduce recidivism. But the quality and even the availability of basic educational services in juvenile justice settings is spotty at best.

"Tragically, some of the kids who need the best options are the ones who get the worst alternatives," says David Domenici, co-founder of Maya Angelou and executive director of the See Forever Foundation.

"Kids who are already behind, have quit or been pushed out of school, or are in a confined facility need the most support to move out of poverty and low education [performance] and into college. They end up in schools that don't work well and it tracks them right back into an unhealthy situation," he says.

A Different Approach

Some 500,000 youth nationwide are detained or incarcerated in juvenile justice (often called juvenile delinquency) systems every year, according to the U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

It is a system intended to differ from the criminal justice system. Even the language signals a kinder, gentler approach—defendants face a "hearing," not a trial; they are pronounced "delinquent," not guilty. The goal has historically been rehabilitation, based on the premise that it's not too late for young people to recover and turn their lives around.

"Education is critical for these kids. If you want to rehabilitate young people, it's the most obvious thing to do," says Joseph Tulman, professor of law at the Juvenile Justice and Special Education Law Clinic at the University of the District of Columbia.

Yet over the past two decades, there have been more than 25 lawsuits against states, charging them with failure to provide adequate education to kids in the delinquency system.

"Many juvenile incarceration facilities have miserably inadequate education programs," says Tulman. "A huge percentage of kids incarcerated or otherwise in the delinquency system also have unmet special education needs, and there's an astounding lack of advocacy to enforce the rights for those kids."

Kids involved in the juvenile justice system disproportionately come from low-income, minority families. Most perform below grade level, and while educational disabilities affect 10 percent of youth overall, that number jumps to about 43 percent in the juvenile justice system. (A small number of court-involved kids are academically on target or gifted, meaning a wide range of abilities need to be addressed.)

Money is always an issue— juvenile justice facilities often have limited funds and resources, and education may take a back seat to safety and security. Kids who are not incarcerated may remain in public schools or seek alternative education programs, like Maya Angelou. In some regions, particularly rural areas, good alternatives can be hard to find.

A Right to Learn?

The situation is further complicated by the fact that access to education is governed by state, not federal, laws. States establish the age at which young people can leave school without being truant—usually age 16 or 17. Some states have statutory or constitutionally guaranteed rights to education, but enforcement varies.

"The juvenile justice system is not really one system," says Hunter Hearst, Jr., senior research assistant with the National Center for Juvenile Justice, a research and policy advisory clearinghouse. States structure their systems differently. "As a result, education in detention and confinement is really a state-by-state issue."

There are some federal protections. For example, the No Child Left Behind Act includes provisions for educating "Neglected and Delinquent" students, and requires schools in juvenile justice facilities to assess teacher quality and students' yearly progress.

But in 2004, the most recent year for which data were collected, 19 states were not reporting on "Adequate Yearly Progress" for their juvenile justice schools, and some states had no systems for collecting any educational performance data on incarcerated youth, according to the National Collaboration Project.