Special Education Needs of Young Adult Offenders - An Assessment of the Impacts of PL (Public Law) 94-142 on the Rehabilitative School Authority and the Department of Corrections

• NCJ Number: 80630
• Date Published: 1981
• Length: 44 pages
• Corporate Author: Virginia Dept of Corrections; Virginia Rehabilitative School Authority
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Report number 81104, submitted by the Joint Task Force on the Impacts of PL 94-142.

Annotation

This report aims to determine the number of potentially educationally handicapped inmates under age 22 in Virginia's adult correctional facilities and to compare the identification and service delivery requirements of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (1975) with current Rehabilitative School Authority (RSA) and State Department of Corrections (DOC) procedures and capabilities.

Abstract

The act requires local educational agencies to identify juveniles under age 22 who need special education and to provide such education as needed. The RSA is a local educational agency whose 'students' are individuals confined in the State's DOC institutions. A sample of 300 inmates under age 22 was randomly selected from the population of 1,276 juvenile inmates confined in the State's adult institutions on January 1, 1981. Their records were reviewed, and 47 percent of the sample were identified as possibly having educational handicaps. Based on recent trends in commitments and confinements of inmates under age 22, it is estimated that preliminary screening of the entire population under age 22 for handicapping conditions would require about 1,000 record reviews, with 470 to 565 of these inmates requiring complete evaluations to determine the nature of the handicapping condition. The comparison of the screening and evaluation requirements of the act with current DOC and RSA practices shows current procedures to be adequate for screening purposes. These procedures would probably be adequate (with revisions) for more detailed evaluation in the medical and sociocultural areas. Major procedural and staffing changes would be needed to meet the requirements regarding the educational and psychological components of the evaluation process. Additional RSA teachers, especially those endorsed in special education areas, would be needed to provide services to those inmates who need special education. Tabular data and eight references are included. (Author summary modified)