Some kids at Philadelphia’s juvenile detention center get no education at all, advocates say. That’s illegal.
Though all young people placed at the center are entitled to an education, they are denied access to that when first admitted, sometimes for up to a month, according to the complaint, filed with the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s special education bureau by the Education Law Center. “Students at the PJJSC have an unequivocal right to access education that cannot be denied simply due to their involvement with the juvenile justice system,” Ashli Giles-Perkins, an Education Law Center lawyer, said in a statement. “In one case, a 17-year-old student with significant disabilities received no education at all during his time at the PJJSC and was not even enrolled in school.