North Penn District Staff Being Trained for Youth Aid Panel Diversionary Program

Dan Sokil | The Reporter•

A new program meant to keep kids out of the court system could debut at North Penn High School soon.

District officials gave an update Monday about a youth aid panel program meant to divert students away from police, and how soon such a program could be put in place.

"We are ready, as of today, to launch the Youth Aid Panel. We do have enough folks to run a panel, but we have up to 17 more members that will be trained this Saturday,” said administrator Pete Nicholson.

In June the school board heard from the Montgomery County District Attorney’s office and two local police chiefs about how they’ve worked together to create youth aid panels, a parallel system of justice meant to process certain juveniles through a series of proceedings staffed by volunteers, including local educators, individuals with first-hand experience in the juvenile system as well as multiple youth advocates, mental health experts and attorneys, instead of interacting with police and the court system.

At the time, the DA’s office and chiefs said doing so could cut down on police caseloads, help students by providing more appropriate punishments and keeping criminal offenses off of their records, and send those students to courses or treatment programs to address any additional problems.

Nicholson, the former NPHS principal now overseeing secondary education, told the board’s safe schools committee on Monday night that staff have continued to work with the DA’s office on preparing such a program, to start on a pilot basis at North Penn, Cheltenham, Abington and Upper Merion high schools, similar to roughly 30 others already up and running in the county.

"Rather than contacting our local municipal police — in North Penn, it would be Towamencin — students would be referred to our own internal NPHS youth aid panel program,” Nicholson said. "The students and family members would agree to the YAP, in lieu of police contact and/or the typical school disciplinary responses.”

So far seven NPHS staff have completed training from the DA’s office on how to administer the panel, with more slated soon, and those staff could man panels during or immediately after their normal school day, so students don’t miss class time for court proceedings, Nicholson told the committee.

"The student, while meeting with the panel, would be given the opportunity to explain the circumstances of the offense, but they would be taking responsibility” for the incident, he said: "this is not to adjudicate whether or not they broke the code of conduct. This is to take responsibility.”

Once in place, the panels could rule that students need to undergo education or training, perform restitution, community service, make an apology, or "any number of things, and once the student meets the requirements, and all of those stipulations, they would come back to the youth aid panel, and meet with them, and show what they’ve done,” Nicholson said.

If they don’t meet the panel’s requirements, their case could then be referred to local police, and the DA’s office has said they can also provide mental health resources, substance abuse help, and counseling services available through district administration. As of now, the administrator said, staff are beginning to work on an update to the district’s policy handbook that makes some infractions automatically referred to a panel, and others at the discretion of school administrators.

"What we would like to do, with the blessing of this committee, is begin the pilot of the YAP at North Penn High School,” Nicholson said.

Data from the panel’s cases, rulings and results could then be used to make further modifications, and/or decide if the program could be expanded to the district’s three middle schools. In another district, Nicholson said, he ran a similar program but that panel was not comprised of district staff, so case information sharing could be easier with the panels run in-house by teachers or other staff.

"We’re going to be able to see what the outcomes are, see how many students are able to take responsibility, be assigned a resolution, and follow through on that resolution, which I think is pretty powerful, and check on the recidivism rate,” Nicholson said.

With a go-ahead from the committee, staff would report back in February after the pilot program has been in place for a full marking period, and bring the results to the full board for a formal revision of the school’s code of conduct, and talks about further expanding it.

"This is all grounded in restorative justice. Having worked with a YAP program in a previous district, that accountability piece was huge, in having students interacting with the staff members that were part of the panel, not in a ‘holding it over their heads’ way, but in making those connections to folks that had their best interests at heart,” Nicholson said.

Superintendent Todd Bauer added that once the trial period is done, likely in February 2024, staff would report back to the full board on the results seen, and whether a formal student handbook update would be needed.

"We will be back, with that data,” Nicholson said.

North Penn’s school board next meets at 7 p.m. on Nov. 8 and the safe schools committee next meets at 5:45 p.m. on Nov. 27; for more information visit www.NPenn.org.

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