Every state’s juvenile justice system is meant to rehabilitate young people — and high-quality education is a key part of that goal. Young people who are incarcerated do not lose their rights to educational opportunity and have the same protections as their peers in traditional school settings, including access to interventions like special education services. The reality, however, is quite different. More often than not, juvenile justice education programs do not provide students with meaningful educational opportunity. 

Improving education opportunity for incarcerated youth across the U.S. is complex and requires a systems-level understanding of how policy shapes and constrains students’ opportunities and outcomes. Currently, most research describes the problems and very little analyzes the system-level issues that could inform state policy reforms and improve outcomes for young people. Evidence for a Purpose: A Research Agenda to Guide Policy Change in Juvenile Justice Education is a research roadmap for state policymakers, researchers, and program leaders to collaboratively reform and redesign education within the juvenile justice system, led by both evidence and purpose.