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The good intentions of bolstering school safety that created the zero-tolerance system of automatic suspensions and expulsions for certain behavior are increasingly evaporating across the United States.
The latest reason why? A kindergartner in Pennsylvania was suspended for 10 days (later reduced to two days), required to undergo a psychological examination, and left with a permanent entry on her record.
Her troublesome behavior? School officials say that the kindergartner made a terroristic threat.
That threat? The girl’s suggestion that she and a friend play with her toy bubble gun after school.
To be clear, her “toy bubble gun” is a pink device that blows bubbles into the air.

Calling all recovery practictioners and researchers: The Addictions and Mental Heath Division of the Oregon Health Authority and Regional Research Institute at Portland State University are accepting proposals for workshops or presentations for the Oregon Recovery Into Practice/ Recovery Into the Community Statewide Institute. The Institute will take place in Portland, Oregon, from April 23-April 25, 2013.

The Institute is focused on bolstering and increasing the availability and utilization of recovery-focused practices in all aspects of mental health services delivery, and to positively impact the achievement of better community inclusion and community integration outcomes in direct consequence of their utilization.
Attendees will include:

Do you support juvenile justice reform and want to help communities break the cycle of drugs, alchohol and crime? 
Join our staff in Portland, Oregon, where Reclaiming Futures is improving the experience for teens in the juvenile justice system by providing adolescent substance abuse and mental health treatment in 37 communities around the country.
We are hiring for two dynamic positions, Strategic Partnership Development Director and Fellowship Program Manager. Please read the full position descriptions. Some highlights of these jobs include: 
Strategic Partnership Development Director

• Secure major sustainability funding from private and government sources
• Cultivate regional and national relationships with individuals and agencies
• Establish financial and other partnerships with local, state and federal agencies, non-profit organizations, private foundations, and private or business sectors

Fellowship Program Manager

• Provide leadership for the strategic direction of the fellowship program and seek input from staff, fellows and faculty across the country
• Organize fellowship meetings’ activities and materials
• Develop a webinar strategy to provide learning opportunities for sites and grow the national profile of Reclaiming Futures 

Discussion about mental health and other substance abuse treatment alternatives was front and center last week when criminal justice system officials addressed House and Senate joint appropriations lawmakers at the State Capitol. “Mental health is a huge issue in all the things we do,” Judge Robin W. Shearer said on behalf of the Council of Juvenile Court Judges.
Georgia is in the early stages of significant adult and juvenile justice system reforms that focus on how to ensure incarceration for the most serious offenders, and how to provide community treatment options for offenders who do not benefit from or even require incarceration.
Last year the General Assembly passed reforms to move the adult corrections system toward those goals. This year legislators are expected to approve sweeping reforms to juvenile criminal law and the civil code. Governor Nathan Deal has made reforms a personal priority and his budget devotes millions of dollars to these goals.
The importance of mental health considerations was evident early in the hearing.

Join leaders from around the country who are striving for big and challenging goals:

• for young people to be ready for college, work and life;
• for communities to offer high-quality supports year-round;
• for leaders to work collectively and effectively to make this happen.

The Ready by 21 National Meeting is for leaders like you working at any level – from state policy coordination and community-wide cradle-to-career efforts to out-of-school time systems, single issue coalitions and neighborhood-based initiatives – who want to learn from your peers, access proven tools and strengthen your capacity for collective impact. Attendees will include local and state leaders from United Ways, business, nonprofits, education, policy, philanthropy and intermediaries, as well as national leaders from organizations that are partners in delivering Ready by 21 strategies. You will connect with other leaders from across communities, states and sectors to strengthen your network and find answers to your toughest challenges.
Session formats will vary from keynotes and plenary panels to small group discussions, demonstrations of how to use concrete tools, and peer learning circles. There will be more than two dozen sessions to choose from, with topics such as:

Last Friday, President Obama announced his intent to appoint Robert Listenbee, Jr. as Administrator of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP). 
From the announcement:

Robert Listenbee, Jr. is Chief of the Juvenile Unit of the Defender Association of Philadelphia, a position he has held since 1997. He has also been a trial lawyer at the Defender Association of Philadelphia since 1986. Previously, from 1991 to 1997, Mr. Listenbee was Assistant Chief of the Juvenile Unit. He is a member of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Committee of the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, which advises the Governor of Pennsylvania on juvenile justice policy. Mr. Listenbee serves on the policy committees of the National Legal Aid & Defender Association and the National Center for Juvenile Justice. He serves on the advisory board of the National Juvenile Defender Center and is a board member and former President of the Juvenile Defenders Association of Pennsylvania. Mr. Listenbee received a B.A. from Harvard University and a J.D. from the Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley.

Listenbee has agreed to join the administration and will replace acting Administrator Melodee Hanes.

Juvenile Justice Reform

• Urban Teaching and Juvenile Justice OR Why I Have 8 Probation Officers’ Numbers in my Phone (Philly Teacher Man Blog)
  "When I started teaching, I had no interest or background in the juvenile justice system. The fact that it might one day be incredibly relevant to my work in education was not even on my radar, but here I sit nearly 5 years later with no fewer than 8 probation officers in my cell phone."
• Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice Prepares for Transformation (JJIE.org)
  Georgia’s DJJ boss tells state lawmakers that his department must be transformed to handle the burdens a class of inmates that’s older and more violent, and high employee turnover and low morale, just as the governor pushes a large package of reforms.
• Florida Tightening Juvenile Justice Monitoring (Bradenton.com)
  State officials on Friday announced plans for quality improvements and tighter monitoring of juvenile justice residential and detention facilities following the arrest last month of a staff member accused of battering a 15-year-old girl in the Florida Panhandle.
• Senator Proposes Moving Toughest Juvenile Offenders to Adult Prisons (Statesman.com)
  In a move that would change decades of state policy, the chairman of the Senate’s criminal justice committee suggested Monday that 17- and 18-year-olds who commit violent crimes should do their time in a new system of youth prisons rather than in Texas’ juvenile lockups.

Models for Change recently published an innovation brief, “Juvenile Justice and Mental Health: A Collaborative Approach,” [PDF download] that reports the benefits of a collaborative model for juvenile justice and mental health. Although teens with mental health problems used to be handled outside of the juvenile justice system, a shift in the 1990s placed “rehabilitation” responsibility to the juvenile justice system. From the report (emphasis mine):
High crime rates [in the 1990s] led to get-tough measures, including zero-tolerance policies in schools and criminalization of normal adolescent behaviors, that put more youths in the system. The closing of psychiatric hospitals, a trend that began in the 1970s, continued apace, while the community mental health system, initiated with such optimism in the 1960s, was being downsized. As a result, youths with mental health problems frequently ended up in the juvenile justice system, which could not refuse to serve them.
To better serve teens with mental health troubles, Models for Change recommends a framework for multi-system change, including (via the report):

A common misconception that befalls some stakeholders in the effort to increase targeted, effective treatment or placements for nonviolent juvenile offenders is that such treatment is not available outside of urban settings or larger cities.
The Village of Oconomowoc Lake, Wisconsin, pop. 595, proves that misconception may not hold true for much longer.
At a recent meeting of the Village’s Municipal Court officials, representatives of a substance abuse program described how substance abuse could be a far more effective deterrent for youths charged with drinking offenses or very minor drug offenses.
Currently, those youths are usually just given a fine, often paid by their parents, and nothing is done to curb the underlying drug or alcohol issues.
Instead, juveniles could be placed in an addiction and education and counseling class, a portion of which involves the family. This alternative meets the rubric for an effective intervention for juveniles: targeted, tailored treatment of underlying issues and familial involvement.