Public schools in DeKalb County have a new kind of authority figure walking the halls: probation officers.
The school system is allowing the officers into the schools, and in some cases giving them office space, so they can keep an eye on students who have run afoul of the law.
Desiree Sutton Peagler, DeKalb’s chief juvenile court judge, and Theodore Carter Jr., formerly the county’s chief probation officer, had wanted to launch an in-school probation program for a while and reshuffled staff to make it happen last year.
Now about 15 probation officers visit the county’s middle and high schools an average of three days a week. They monitor 386 students who have been to juvenile court for everything from minor violations such as truancy to serious crimes such as assault, burglary or possession of illegal drugs.
“We’re there for support,” Sutton Peagler said of the court’s presence.
The goal is straight-forward: monitor compliance with the court orders and ensure probationers stay in school, she said.
Sutton Peagler said she was inspired by the success of other programs, particularly in Pennsylvania.
Allentown, Pa., has had probation officers in schools since 1990, and supporters say the program has resulted in closer, more effective and more informed monitoring of delinquents, and also safer and more orderly schools. Other studies have found results from improved attendance to fewer repeat offenses.
The DeKalb officers are certified police officers, but they wear civilian clothes and leave law enforcement to the school system police. They try to chat with all students, not just those on probation, Sutton Peagler said. The officers are good role models, the judge said, and when they speak to all students, it’s less obvious which ones they’re talking to on official business. They often pop into classrooms or make scheduled appointments. Some have offices in the school, she said.
In other areas, these in-school probation programs have been criticized by people who don’t like the idea of police in the schools, Sutton Peagler said. But she said she hadn’t heard of similar criticism in DeKalb.
The program isn’t more expensive than traditional probation service, and it enables officers to meet with multiple probationers at a single school, avoiding the gas and time costs of home visits, Sutton Peagler said. She is optimistic statistics will show a reduction in recidivism.
More than one-third of Georgia’s school systems have school-based probation programs.
The state Department of Juvenile Justice launched a pilot program in the 2008-2009 school year and now works in schools with students who are either on probation or under DJJ’s supervision in 66 Georgia counties, said Emily Gest, the department spokeswoman.
Other counties have their own programs.
Clayton County has had probation officers in its schools since 2006, and Juvenile Court Judge Steven Teske sees the program’s potential.
“Kids spend most of their time in school,” Teske said. “POs [probation officers] should take advantage of this.”
Probation officers can learn a great deal by seeing how a probationer interacts with other students, he said.
“Peers are another factor in causing delinquent conduct,” Teske said. “Probation officers need to monitor their associations and break up poor peer influences. The more a youth knows [he or she is] being watched, the less likely they will act out.”
In larger school systems, a probation officer’s entire caseload may be made up of middle and high school students in one or more schools in the system. In smaller school systems, the officer may be supervising adults, as well as students.
In Whitfield County, north of metro Atlanta, juvenile probation officers don’t have offices in the schools. But the county’s four probation officers are routinely at the schools, seeing about 150 middle and high school students who are on probation, said David Moeller, administrator for the Whitfield County Juvenile Court in Dalton.
County policy is to have the probation officer meet face-to-face with each juvenile probationer three times a month — and at least one of those meetings must be at the student’s school, Moeller said.
“The kids spend eight hours a day in the school, so obviously it’s a huge part of their lives,” he said.
Whitfield County’s probation officers usually meet with students at their school’s counseling or main office, Moeller said.
“We want to minimize the interruption in instruction,” he said, adding that being at the school is also convenient, since the probation officer often needs to see the students’ attendance and discipline records.
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