The connection between schools and the juvenile justice system is not incidental — it is structural. School discipline decisions send students into the justice system, and the justice system makes it harder to return to school. Understanding how that connection works is the first step toward disrupting it.
Washington has invested significantly in youth diversion — alternatives to formal court processing that keep young people out of the justice system. This section explains how schools feed into the system, what diversion looks like in Washington, and the laws that support a different path.