Juvenile Probation Commission
An Overview of Juvenile Justice Alternative Education Programs
February 1999
Report Number 99-024
Overview
The 74th Legislature created Juvenile Justice Alternative Education Programs (JJAEPs) to ensure that students expelled from public schools in Texas would continue to have an opportunity for public education. JJAEPs are supposed to enable students to perform at grade level. Although students are making progress, they are still exiting the program below grade level. During the 1997-1998 school year, fewer JJAEP students were enrolled than was necessary to draw down the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission (Commission) appropriation.
This overview is an interim product of a larger project scheduled for release in Spring 1999. As a result, this report is informational in nature and does not contain audit findings, recommendations, or client responses. This report is releasing at this time so that the information may be used during the current legislative session.
Key Facts and Findings
During fiscal year 1998, the Commission spent 43 percent of the $10 million appropriated.
The cost of operating a JJAEP varies according to student attendance and program services. At the four sites we visited, cost per student varied from a low of $28 per day to a high of $229 per day.
Three-fourths of JJAEP students are not mandatory enrollments.
Students who scored below grade level when entering the JJAEP progressed an average of one grade level in reading and three-fourths of a grade level in math.
JJAEPs have a disproportionate number of minority students.
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