CORRECTIONAL EDUCATION 

GUIDANCE PACKAGE

Providing High-Quality Education Services for 

America’s Confined Youth

To strengthen educational services for youth in juvenile 

detention facilities, the Departments of Justice and 

Education are providing states and local agencies a 

Correctional Education Guidance Package. The package 

describes how

• Youth in juvenile justice facilities may qualify for Pell 

grants, if they otherwise meet applicable eligibility 

criteria, so that they may transition out of facilities and 

onto a path that helps them to pursue the purposeful 

opportunities afforded by higher education and to 

enter the workforce;

• Discriminatory education practices are prohibited in 

all settings for all students, including students with 

disabilities and English language learners; 

• Absent a specific exception, all protections provided 

under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, 

including the obligation to identify and evaluate 

students with disabilities, as well as disciplinary and 

due process procedures, apply to eligible students with 

disabilities in correctional facilities and their parents; 

and

• Agencies and facilities serving youth in correctional 

facilities must provide education services comparable 

to those available to students in community schools.

Highlights From the Guidance Why Correctional 

Education 

Guidance Is 

Needed

President Obama’s My Brother’s 

Keeper initiative, announced 

this past summer, aims to help 

all young people succeed 

in school and reach their 

potential in life. As part of this 

goal, the initiative’s task force 

recommended that the juvenile 

and criminal justice systems 

be reformed to “enforce the 

rights of incarcerated youth to 

a quality education.” To have a 

real chance at a second chance 

in their lives, youth must continue 

to have a solid education that 

unleashes and expands their 

potential to contribute to their 

communities, the nation, and the 

world. The President has set a 

goal that, by 2020, our nation 

will have the highest proportion 

of college graduates in the world 

and that all Americans complete 

at least one year or more of 

college or career training. The 

Administration believes that even 

youth in correctional facilities 

can play their part in helping us 

achieve that vision.

For young people who are 

incarcerated, access to a highquality education during their 

confinement is a vitally important 

and cost-effective strategy for 

ensuring they become productive 

members of their communities. 

The average cost to confine a 

juvenile is $88,000 per year – 

and a recent study showed that 

about 55 percent of youth were 

rearrested within 12 months 

of release. Inmates of all ages 

are half as likely to go back to 

jail if they participate in higher 

education – even compared to 

inmates with similar histories. 

To achieve this goal, the U.S. 

Departments of Justice and 

Education propose the five 

guiding principles listed on the 

reverse. 

The Picture of Young People in 

Corrections Today in the U.S.

60,000+ young 

people 

are in juvenile justice 

residential or secure care 

facilities on any day 

of young 

people 

released from 

juvenile justice facilities 

were rearrested 

55% 

46% 

of youth

with a diagnosed 

learning disability in juvenile 

justice facilities reported they 

received special education 

services while confined

$88,000 

The per year average cost 

to confine 1 youth
Five Guiding Principles 

for Providing High-Quality 

Education In Juvenile 

Justice Secure Care 

Settings

1. A safe, healthy facility-wide climate 

that prioritizes education, provides the 

conditions for learning, and encourages 

the necessary behavioral and social 

support services that address the 

individual needs of all youth, including 

those with disabilities and English 

learners.

2. Necessary funding to support 

educational opportunities for all youth 

within long-term secure care facilities, 

including those with disabilities and 

English learners, comparable to 

opportunities for peers who are not 

system-involved.

3. Recruitment, employment, and retention 

of qualified education staff with skills 

relevant in juvenile justice settings who 

can positively impact long-term student 

outcomes through demonstrated abilities 

to create and sustain effective teaching 

and learning environments.

4. Rigorous and relevant curricula aligned 

with state academic and career and 

technical education standards that utilize 

instructional methods, tools, materials, 

and practices that promote college- and 

career-readiness.

5. Formal processes and procedures 

– through statutes, memoranda of 

understanding, and practices – that 

ensure successful navigation across childserving systems and smooth reentry into 

communities.

Other Key Components of 

the Correctional Education 

Guidance

In addition to the five guiding principles, the 

Departments of Education and Justice have 

prepared “Dear Colleague” letters to clarify 

the obligations under the pertinent federal 

civil rights laws, regulations, and guidance for 

education in all schools, including in juvenile 

justice and correctional facilities, and for all 

students, including students with disabilities and 

English language learners. These are

• Dear Colleague Letter on the Individuals 

with Disabilities Education Act for Students 

with Disabilities in Correctional Facilities;

• Dear Colleague Letter on the Civil Rights 

of Students in Juvenile Justice Residential 

Facilities; and

• Dear Colleague Letter on Access to Federal 

Pell Grants for Students in Juvenile Justice 

Facilities

The four components of the guidance, along 

with frequently asked questions, provide 

information on resources to help facilities, and 

local and state education agencies provide 

a high-quality education to youth in juvenile 

justice and correctional facilities so they may 

answer the call to remove barriers to successful 

reentry and promote positive outcomes for 

them. The complete guidance package is 

available at www.ed.gov/correctionaled/.

It is the responsibility of government at 

every level to work with communities and in 

collaboration with secure care facilities to 

ensure that committed youth are provided 

every opportunity to rehabilitate and reenter the community prepared to exercise 

the duties and opportunities of productive 

citizenship. ... As a nation, we can do no 

less. —Guiding Principles for Providing 

High-Quality Education in Juvenile Justice 

Secure Care Settings, U.S. Departments of 

Education and Justice

Elias, a former student at the Northern Virginia Juvenile Detention Center 

School, leads Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Attorney General 

Eric Holder, and Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director 

of Cabinet Affairs for My Brother’s Keeper Michael Smith on a tour of the 

facility. They were joined by Principal Jeannette Allen of the Center.

Inmates 

of all ages 

are half as 

likely to 

go back to 

jail if they 

participate 

in higher education, even 

compared to inmates with 

similar histories.