About 300 students with emotional disturbances in Louisiana's East Baton Rouge Parish school district will begin getting the services they need under an聽agreement聽that resolves an administrative complaint filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Southern Disability Law Center and the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana.
Hundreds of special education students in Jefferson Parish who were systematically denied the help due them under federal law are now getting desperately needed services under a new action plan approved by the Louisiana Department of Education.
In the chaos after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans' broken juvenile justice system completely abandoned 150 children locked in the city's adult prison, according to a report by the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana (JJLP).
Unlike most children, Allen* didn't have the opportunity to spend his 10th birthday with family and friends. Instead of blowing out candles on a cake, Allen was alone in a juvenile detention center.
In May 2006, the Southern Poverty Law Center, along with attorneys from the Southern Disability Law Center and the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana, obtained a class-wide settlement agreement affecting all special education students with Emotional Disturbance in East Baton Rouge Parish.
Nearly a year after Mississippi officials promised to improve conditions at two state training schools, a federal court monitor reported few if any changes have actually been made.
The Mississippi legislature yesterday passed a bill to fund community-based services for juvenile offenders and reform the state's juvenile justice system.
While the Center's Montgomery headquarters escaped damage by Hurricane Katrina, juvenile justice and education initiatives in Louisiana and Mississippi will be hampered by the catastrophic storm.
The governor of Mississippi on Friday signed a law seen as a milestone in efforts to change the way the state treats juvenile offenders.
