Report: Fewer Texas Children In Discipline Schools

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A top official says the number of Texas kids in schools for those previously expelled because of disciplinary problems has declined nearly 40 percent in recent years.

Juvenile Justice Alternative Education Programs are special schools for students expelled from their home districts. They encompass 277 school districts and about 77 percent of the juvenile-age population statewide.

Texas Juvenile Justice Department executive director Cheryln Townsend said Monday that between the 2006-2007 and 2010-2011 school years, the number of kids enrolled in those programs declined 38 percent.

Townsend told the Texas House Committee on Public Education that a majority of JJAEP students were male, 77 percent were minorities and 20 percent had special educational needs.

She also said that the average length of stay in the program per student has declined.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.