Training opportunities for detention center staff and probation departments in rural areas of Virginia are often limited due to staffing issues and budget concerns. Currently, all Virginia state agencies and departments are experiencing reduced budgets, including training and travel budgets. At the same time, more youth entering the juvenile justice system are exhibiting challenging behaviors that are often a result of a mental health and/or educational disability. By targeting the rural areas, using the train-the-trainer approach, this project provides critical information on the special needs of these youth and is developing to a cadre of trained staff who then share the information with others. We have expanded the existing materials to include recognizing and understanding both educational and mental health disabilities among juveniles. The one-day training provides an in-depth description of disabilities that affect the juvenile’s behavior, and of the barriers these disabling conditions create for the juvenile in understanding and following court orders and abiding by rules of probation. Strategies to assist the juvenile to overcome these barriers are also addressed.

Intended long-term outcomes of this program include:

• Provide to four hundred professionals in the juvenile justice system an increased awareness and knowledge of educational, emotional and mental disabilities of adjudicated juveniles in detention or parole, and how such hidden disabilities may manifest in this population.
  
• Teach juvenile justice professionals in rural regions of Virginia the skills to informally assess and identify youth with educational, emotional and mental disabilities that are new to their facilities.
  
• Create a cadre of trained juvenile justice personnel in eight rural regions in Virginia who can provide training to existing and new juvenile justice staff, to increase their awareness and knowledge of educational, emotional and mental disabilities of adjudicated juveniles in detention or parole, and how such hidden disabilities may manifest in this population.
  
• Juvenile justice personnel receive the most current local, state, and national information in regard to adjudicated youth with educational, emotional and mental disabilities.
  
• Collect and interpret data, based on sound methodology that can be used to assess the project’s implementation and overall effectiveness for achieving increased success of youth with educational, emotional and mental health disabilities and reduce recidivism in this population.