{"id":315623,"date":"2026-10-27T21:58:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T21:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/315623\/"},"modified":"2026-10-27T21:58:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T21:58:09","slug":"these-experts-lay-out-solutions-to-help-formerly-incarcerated-students-succeed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/315623\/","title":{"rendered":"These experts lay out solutions to help formerly incarcerated students succeed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Did you know search engines like Google are changing the way you see news? Keep Chalkbeat\u2019s valuable education coverage at the top of your feeds by clicking here<\/a> and checking the box next to our name.<\/p>\n

Students returning to their communities after serving time in juvenile facilities often require extra support to make it to graduation. A panel hosted by Chalkbeat Philadelphia this week focused on how adults in the educational and carceral systems can improve that support.<\/p>\n

At the heart of the conversation was Act 1 of 2022, a Pennsylvania law designed to improve \u201ceducational stability\u201d for youth impacted by the justice system, foster care, or homelessness. Earlier this month, Chalkbeat Philadelphia published a feature story about how the law is being implemented<\/a> for justice-involved students five years after its passage. Under the law, eligible students are entitled to a school contact who will help ensure that the coursework they take behind bars gets counted when they return. <\/p>\n

But panelists and event attendees said students still face challenges getting their transcripts and other educational documents transferred from multiple facilities. That can make it harder for them to stay motivated to finish high school. <\/p>\n

\u201cEducation reduces recidivism, education makes Philadelphia safer,\u201d said Michael Welch, education attorney for the Defender Association of Philadelphia. \u201cAnd it is unacceptable for these young people who see violence, who are victims of violence \u2026 to be told that their credit, their schoolwork, is worthless.\u201d<\/p>\n

Welch said he\u2019s been pushing the School District of Philadelphia to abide by the mandate and is asking local judges to enforce it. The school district did not make a representative available for the panel. <\/p>\n

Thaddeus Parker, with the McClain Foundation and the Philadelphia Department of Public Health, agreed that better oversight and awareness of the law could improve outcomes for these students. <\/p>\n

He also emphasized that adults who interact with formerly incarcerated youth should take a more person-centered approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of this population of young people, they don\u2019t have the most stable home environments, so then we become dependent on their guardians to navigate them back to the normal way of going to school,\u201d Parker said. \u201cThere\u2019s been times where I\u2019ve had to take actual records to the school district, and if I wasn\u2019t doing that, it wouldn\u2019t get done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Panelists discussed other solutions including district-wide training, the city\u2019s Office of the Youth Ombudsman, and Act 1 Graduation Plans<\/a> for every eligible student. <\/p>\n

View the full recording here.<\/a><\/p>\n

Sammy Caiola covers solutions to gun violence in and around Philadelphia schools. Have ideas for her? Get in touch at scaiola@chalkbeat.org.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Philadelphia Journalism Collaborative provided support for this event. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Did you know search engines like Google are changing the way you see news? Keep Chalkbeat\u2019s valuable education…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":315624,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[5609,52519,69,71,70,7625,17702],"class_list":["post-315623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-event","tag-juvenile-justice","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-philly","tag-sammy-caiola"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}