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Nobody was looking out for Aqilah David when she came home from incarceration.
At least that’s how it felt when she returned to her Philadelphia high school in 2018, after several months in a juvenile facility. The school’s administrators had marked her absent for much of the time she’d been away. Even though she’d taken classes while incarcerated, she had to fight to prove she had. She ended up graduating late.
“It just feels like a whole waste of your time, and it’s not a good feeling,” she said of her experience.
David then joined an effort to push for help for students like her — and won. Pennsylvania lawmakers moved to ensure more students get the credits they’ve earned in classes behind bars with a 2022 law called Act 1.
But nearly five years later, David and others say students are still facing the same problems.
Philadelphia principals and counselors say they’re still hunting down lost transcripts after juvenile facilities fail to communicate student progress. Meanwhile, other Philadelphia school staffers responsible under the law for helping students told Chalkbeat they didn’t know what it was or had gotten little or no training for it. Caught in the middle are students attempting to get back on track.
In Philadelphia, where youth gun arrests rose dramatically after the pandemic, the stakes are particularly high.
“When we deny you your educational rights, we sentence you to a life of crime or poverty, or both,” said Estelle Richman, former secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare who also chaired a 2019 Philadelphia committee on incarcerated youth.
The School District of Philadelphia, which received no additional funding through the law, has made some effort to meet Act 1’s requirements. Officials have distributed guidance and designated liaisons for nearly all of its schools in the past.
Multiple juvenile justice facilities declined or did not respond to Chalkbeat’s interview requests. Republican Sen. Wayne Langerholc Jr., the author of Act 1, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Several students who spoke with Chalkbeat described encountering delays and other problems when they tried to ensure the academic progress they made in juvenile facilities carried over into traditional public schools and charters.
Dylan, 17, served 15 months in juvenile placement facilities for auto theft and weapons possession charges. He said he returned home earlier this year without a comprehensive record of his coursework. (Chalkbeat agreed to use only his first name due to his criminal record.)
When he sought to reenroll in the Philadelphia district, Dylan, his mom, and his caseworker at a youth reentry nonprofit said they tried to hunt down Dylan’s juvenile transcripts and fought to get him placed in the correct grade. Instead, he ultimately enrolled in a cyber charter, where they said it was easier for him to join as an 11th grader.
“It wasn’t very professional,” Dylan said of the adults who were supposed to help him. “They just was slacking on certain things that they were supposed to do.”
Pennsylvania law aimed to keep students on track academically
The juvenile justice system is complicated, and students often move between school districts in different detention centers and residential facilities.
Pennsylvania youth in juvenile facilities have a right to free and appropriate public education under federal and state law, just like their peers in the regular K-12 system. But gaps in communication between juvenile facilities and school districts, incomplete or inaccurate transcripts, or mismatching course titles or credit values, can make it hard for young people returning home to prove what they’ve learned, according to multiple reports.
“Everybody can point the finger at somebody else,” said Margot Isman, policy director at the Youth Sentencing and Reentry Project in Philadelphia. “There’s always another agency that’s involved.”
The Philadelphia district said it works to consider partial credits students earn in juvenile facilities, though there are cases where they may need to retake courses.
In Philadelphia in 2024, there were over 1,900 admissions to the juvenile justice system, according to state data, although a single student might account for more than one admission if they go to more than one facility, or to the same facility twice in one year.
Act 1 was supposed to make it easier to identify students, support them, and ensure their academic work in juvenile facilities counts. Under the law, schools are supposed to designate a staff member to help these students transfer credits from other places and to develop graduation plans.
Shortly after the law passed, former Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Pat Browne wrote that Act 1 — which he cosponsored — would “help to remove these barriers, allowing for more young men and women to succeed and realize their potential.”
But gaps in awareness and enforcement have left students scrambling.
District officials said they have disseminated guidance and provided training to school leaders multiple times since 2023. But the law doesn’t require schools to track students covered by Act 1, or to report which school staffers are the mandatory points of contact.
Richardson Sylvain, a counselor at the Edward Gideon School in North Philadelphia, was his school’s Act 1 contact person for the 2024-25 school year, according to a list provided to Chalkbeat by the Center for Schools and Communities, an organization that partners with the Pennsylvania Department of Education to help schools implement Act 1.
Yet he said he wasn’t aware he held the position until Chalkbeat contacted him for comment.
Sylvain said he knew little about Act 1 and had never received any training on it. Sylvain said he doesn’t know how many students in his building are entitled to services under Act 1.But he said if more parents were aware that Act 1 could help their children, and knew he was their Act 1 point of contact, they might reach out for help.
“A lot of people are too proud sometimes to let us know what’s going on, but if they see signage or posts on Instagram or whatever, instead of me asking them what’s up, they can maybe seek out Counselor Sylvain,” he said.
Ultimately, the law lacks “the necessary oversight and accountability at the state level” that some advocates sought four years ago, said Maura McInerney, an attorney at the Education Law Center, a nonprofit that pushed for Act 1.
Act 1 does require districts to track when students experiencing educational instability receive special Keystone Diplomas. The Pennsylvania Department of Education said it’s not aware of any students covered by Act 1 graduating that way. But advocates say it’s hard to tell whether any of them have been dropping out instead of earning regular diplomas on time.
McInerney would like to see an audit of Act 1 five years after it passed.
Educators have mixed experiences with Act 1
Lester Lowery, operations director at the Career & Academic Development Institute, an accelerated alternative high school in Philadelphia, said he can track down transcripts from the juvenile justice system about 75% of the time.
He hasn’t noticed a higher success rate, or less hassle, since Act 1 took effect. However, like Sylvain, Lowery said he hasn’t gotten training about the law.
“The time that I’m spending to get these credits, it’s problematic for me sometimes,” Lowery said.
While some school officials worry about the law’s shortcomings, others say its presence is helpful.
Michael DeAntonio runs a private Bucks County alternative school called Buxmont Academy that serves some Philadelphia students. He said when he mentions Act 1 when he’s tracking down students’ credits, he often gets a speedier response.
“If you use that language, which we’re all supposed to be using and we’re all supposed to be working towards, I think it sometimes holds a little bit more weight,” he said.
Still, measuring Act 1’s impact is difficult. The Philadelphia district said it does not track whether students who become involved in the juvenile justice system earn a high school diploma.
And the state hasn’t been tracking whether the law has helped keep students in school or improve their academic success, advocates say.
David, who fought for Act 1, now works as a youth facilitator at Youth Art and Self Empowerment Project, where she supports young people returning from detention and advocates to end juvenile incarceration. She worries that children and adults simply lack the information they need for Act 1 to serve students better: “They don’t have the tools to make sure it gets done.”
David said she now wonders if “we need to do Act 2.”
Sammy Caiola covers solutions to gun violence in and around Philadelphia schools. Have ideas for her? Get in touch at scaiola@chalkbeat.org.