A Descriptive Evaluation of The Grade Court Program in San Juan County, New Mexico
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Authors
Marsh, Daylene
Issue Date
2022
Type
Thesis
Language
Keywords
juvenile justice , problem solving courts , recidivism
Alternative Title
Abstract
Schools have adopted the practice of “zero tolerance” to address in-school infractions, wherein all students who have committed an in-school infraction face the same type of discipline. The purpose of these policies is to remove the problem student from the school environment, creating an atmosphere conducive to learning. However, these policies often rely heavily on exclusionary punishment that includes suspension, expulsion, or referral to the juvenile justice system. Studies indicate that exclusionary punishment and referral to juvenile court has a detrimental effect on a student’s academic progress and disproportionately effect minority students and students with disabilities. To address the issues involving the detrimental effect “zero tolerance” policies, San Juan County, New Mexico created a problem-solving court called Grade Court. The purpose of Grade Court is to focus on academics by encouraging the child to engage with education and make them accountable for their grades; however, there is little evidence that indicates the degree to which this program is effective. Thus, this project sought to conduct an initial evaluation of the Grade Court program using archival data from both the Grade Court database and the New Mexico Courts criminal database. Specifically, the participants of the program were sorted into two groups �" those who graduated from the program and those who did not graduate from the program �" and their adult recidivism rates were then analyzed. Results suggest that graduating from the Grade Court program was significantly associated with lower rates of recidivism as an adult compared to students who did not graduate from the program. In addition, the manner in which the student successfully graduated from Grade Court was not associated with adultii recidivism rates. Results of this study suggest that further research is needed, but that this problem-solving court appears to be a promising approach to prevent a child from entering the school-to-prison pipeline.