We urged the City Council to confront the ongoing educational crisis inside New York City’s juvenile detention centers, where students routinely miss school, lack mandated special education services, and face classroom assignments that don’t match their academic needs. Associate Director of the Civil Justice Practice, Anna Arkin-Gallagher, called on the city to reduce youth incarceration, expand alternatives that keep young people with their families, and ensure that students in detention receive the instruction, remediation, and transitional support they are legally entitled to access.

"We believe that children and young adults learn best when they are in their homes, and not behind bars. The best way to provide educational supports to the young people we serve would be to avoid putting them in detention and focus on diverting them from the criminal legal system all together."

Read the full testimony here.