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Shelby County officials are coming under fresh pressure to deal with education deficiencies in the juvenile-justice system, where advocates said not enough young people who are detained are regularly attending school or learning what they need to graduate.
A group of those advocates sent a letter last week to Shelby County Sheriff Floyd Bonner warning about the low rates of school attendance and demanding improved conditions for youth in detention beyond just their education.
The county’s Juvenile Court has known about the issues at the county’s Youth Justice and Education Center, and at the school inside, called Hope Academy. A consultant it worked with to identify issues facing youth in the facilities reported just half of them were attending school each day, and that course offerings weren’t comprehensive enough to give students the classes they need to graduate, according to Stephanie Hill, the court’s chief administrative officer.