By Amanda NeMoyer and Naomi Goldstein
Across the United States, arrest rates for young people under age 18 have been declining for decades. However, the proportion of youth arrests associated with school incidents has increased.
According to the U.S. Department of Education, K-12 schools referred nearly 230,000 students to law enforcement during the school year that began in 2017. These referrals and the 54,321 reported school-based arrests that same year were mostly for minor misbehavior like marijuana possession, as opposed to more serious offenses like bringing a gun to school.
School-based arrests are one part of the school-to-prison pipeline, through which students – especially Black and Latine students and those with disabilities – are pushed out of their schools and into the legal system.
Getting caught up in the legal system has been linked to negative health, social and academic outcomes, as well as increased risk for future arrest.
Given these negative consequences, public agencies in states like Connecticut, New York and Pennsylvania have looked for ways to arrest fewer young people in schools. Philadelphia, in particular, has pioneered a successful effort to divert youth from the legal system.
Philadelphia Police School Diversion Program
In Philadelphia, police department leaders recognized that the city’s school district was its largest source of referrals for youth arrests. To address this issue, then-Deputy Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel developed and implemented a school-based, pre-arrest diversion initiative in partnership with the school district and the city’s department of human services. The program is called the Philadelphia Police School Diversion Program, and it officially launched in May 2014.
Mayor-elect Cherelle Parker named Bethel as her new police commissioner on Nov. 22, 2023.
Since the diversion program began, when police are called to schools in the city for offenses like marijuana possession or disorderly conduct, they cannot arrest the student involved if that student has no pending court case or a history of adjudication. In juvenile court, an adjudication is similar to a conviction in criminal court.
Instead of being arrested, the diverted student remains in school and school personnel decide how to respond to their behavior. For example, they might speak with the student, schedule a meeting with a parent or suspend the student.
A social worker from the city also contacts the student’s family to arrange a home visit, where they assess youth and family needs. Then, the social worker makes referrals to no-cost community-based services. The student and their family choose whether to attend.
Our team — the Juvenile Justice Research and Reform Lab at Drexel University — evaluated the effectiveness of the diversion program as independent researchers not affiliated with the police department or school district. We published four research articles describing various ways the diversion program affected students, schools and costs to the city.
Arrests dropped
In our evaluation of the diversion program’s first five years, we reported that the annual number of school-based arrests in Philadelphia decreased by 84%: from nearly 1,600 in the school year beginning in 2013 to just 251 arrests in the school year beginning in 2018.
Since then, school district data indicates the annual number of school-based arrests in Philadelphia has continued to decline — dropping to just 147 arrests in the school year that began in 2022. That’s a 91% reduction from the year before the program started.
We also investigated the number of serious behavioral incidents recorded in the school district in the program’s first five years. Those fell as well, suggesting that the diversion program effectively reduced school-based arrests without compromising school safety.
Additionally, data showed that city social workers successfully contacted the families of 74% of students diverted through the program during its first five years. Nearly 90% of these families accepted at least one referral to community-based programming, which includes services like academic support, job skill development and behavioral health counseling.
Fewer suspensions and expulsions
We compared data from 1,281 students diverted in the first three years of the school-based program to data from 531 similar students who were arrested in schools before the program began but who would have been eligible if the diversion program existed.
Diverted students were significantly less likely to be suspended, expelled or required to transfer to another school in the year following their school-based incident.
Long-term outcomes
To evaluate a longer follow-up period, we compared the 427 students diverted in the program’s first year to the group of 531 students arrested before the program began. Results showed arrested students were significantly more likely to be arrested again in the following five years.
Although we observed impacts on arrest outcomes, the diversion program did not appear to affect long-term educational outcomes. We looked at four years of school data and found no significant differences in suspension, dropout or on-time graduation between diverted and arrested students.
Finally, a cost-benefit analysis revealed that the program saves taxpayers millions of dollars.
Based on its success in Philadelphia, several other cities and counties across Pennsylvania have begun replicating the Police School Diversion Program. These efforts could further contribute to a nationwide movement to safely keep kids in their communities and out of the legal system.
Amanda NeMoyer is Assistant Research Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Drexel University. Naomi Goldstein is Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Drexel University.
The Conversation arose out of deep-seated concerns for the fading quality of our public discourse and recognition of the vital role that academic experts could play in the public arena. Information has always been essential to democracy. It’s a societal good, like clean water. But many now find it difficult to put their trust in the media and experts who have spent years researching a topic. Instead, they listen to those who have the loudest voices. Those uninformed views are amplified by social media networks that reward those who spark outrage instead of insight or thoughtful discussion. The Conversation seeks to be part of the solution to this problem, to raise up the voices of true experts and to make their knowledge available to everyone. The Conversation publishes nightly at 9 p.m. on FlaglerLive.
Robin says
I agree that diversion to social and community services is a good step but! Students who physically and violently disrupt a classroom should be removed. Students’ opportunities to learn are too important to be continually disrupted.
I speak from my personal experiences as a teacher.
JimboXYZ says
Decriminalizing is not really beneficial to anyone beyond the 2nd chance the juvenile delinquent gets to either straighten up or continue on a path of self destruction. It certainly never works out for the victim. And fixing the stats to falsify crime rates is a result. If the one that was caught straightens up, that is a personal choice for corrective action, it has nothing to do with Biden-ing the arrest reports as a cover-up. All one has to do is look at the mug shots of those arrested, they’re White, Black & Hispanic. Need to soul search & ask why there seem to never be an Asian minor making headlines or mug shots. That’s a parenting thing, dishonoring themselves as individuals means something in that culture. I don’t doubt that there aren’t criminals for that demographic, but the lack of arrests is obviously something other demographics should strive to emulate. Same goes for the grades at schools. We wouldn’t be having assemblies & apologies to address substandard test scores.
Pogo says
@EXTRA, EXTRA!!!
Xi Jinping, et al., comrades and sisters, solves age-old problem with the use of traditional values.
“We will have fewer children, but they will be better children — or else…”
And dessert, for being such a good boy:
Florida becomes first state to accept ‘Classic Learning Test’ as SAT, ACT alternative
The “Classic Learning Test” is an exam popular among Christian schools and conservative political groups.
https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/education/florida-approves-classic-learning-test-sat-act-alternative/67-13122d6b-68cc-4004-a989-b1b38bb7ca5d
And the local 3 Stooges?
Endless dark money says
It’s profitable to put the poor kids in prison where they can be worth 40 to 50 k per year in contracts for the prisons. No they won’t get care and will be lifelong felons but think of the profits for shareholders…..