NCJ Number
75141
Date Published
1979
Length
9 pages
Annotation
This article describes the In-School Suspension Project (ISSP), a Georgia high school diversion project for juvenile offenders, which assigns students to in-school or in-house academic programs designed for both remedial and punishment aspects.
Abstract
An alternative to suspending juvenile offenders from school, the remedial strategy calls for the cooperation of the county juvenile court and the department of human resources-youth services authorities in using ISSP as a referral device. Once determination of a suspension is made, a contact person for each school insures that all classroom assignments for the student are assembled and forwarded to ISSP along with a copy of the suspension notice. Another aspect of the remedial strategy includes individualized instruction for each student. Three main advantages of ISSP are (1) students are counted as present in school while assigned to ISSP and thus the schools benefit from an increased average daily attendance (ADA); (2) as students are required to complete all assignments before release, they keep current on their regular class work and are often able to move ahead of their classmates in work completed; and (3) students in ISSP are not 'on the streets,' associating with other youth and thus, the likelihood of their contact with juvenile offenders and offense opportunities is decreased. Corporal punishment is not a feature of ISSP. As a prerequisite to entering the program, students sign statements acknowledging program rules and conditions. A violation of ISSP rules may result in extra days added to their original stay. (ERIC abstract modified).