Deanne Unruh

This project will assess the efficacy of Research on Employment of Adjudicated Youth through Working at Gaining Employment Social Skills Curriculum (READY for WAGES), a research-based social skills curriculum, to promote positive employment-related skills and outcomes for incarcerated juvenile offenders with disabilities in long-term facilities. Adolescents with disabilities are over-represented in the juvenile justice system, and young offenders with disabilities are even more at risk for p...

State and national data show that youth with disabilities are less likely to attend postsecondary education or be employed than their peers without disabilities. State Education Agencies (SEAs) collect transition-related student data as part of their federal reporting requirements that can be used to improve youth outcomes by targeting areas of need and identifying appropriate evidence-based practices, yet there is no standard practice for using these data. The purpose of this study is to de...

Adolescents with disabilities, specifically those with emotional disorders, are over-represented in the juvenile justice system. It is estimated that between 40 percent and 70 percent of all incarcerated juvenile offenders have some type of disability. Juvenile offenders are incredibly costly to our society due to both the monetary expenditures of incarceration and the associated costs with fewer employment opportunities after incarceration. Transitional programs aimed to reintegrate inca...