New Report Finds Connecticut Youth with Disabilities Were Repeatedly Denied Critical Supports Before Incarceration 

The Center for Children’s Advocacy is pleased to share the release of the report, Missed Cues and Lost Opportunities: Connecticut’s Incarcerated Youth & Young Adults with Disabilities & Recommendations for Systemic Change, written by Dr. Andrea Spencer and Attorney Marisa Halm, with input from Attorney Martha Stone, and edited by Jeffrey Goldberg and Sarah Eagan, graphic design by Chris Moore.

This report examines the educational trajectories of 10 youth and young adults with disabilities incarcerated in Connecticut’s adult correctional system before the age of 18 and highlights how missed opportunities throughout these young people’s lives, frequently from a very early age, restricted their access to appropriate educational, vocational, and life skills training.  

The findings demonstrate that all of these youth experienced significant adverse childhood experiences—child abuse and neglect, parental incarceration, medical challenges, traumatic injuries, personal and community violence. They faced profound developmental challenges and ongoing academic and social-emotional difficulties long before justice-system involvement.  Many of these youth were reading well below grade level throughout their years in school. Unfortunately, school responses frequently emphasized punitive measures and behavioral management rather than comprehensive educational evaluation, trauma-informed assessment, and evidence-based intervention.  

By the time most of these children were in 8th grade, they had disengaged from school, frustrated, and often hopeless for their future. Most of the youth came to MYI after placements in alternative or state-approved private special education programs.  

The report underscores the urgent need to support children and youth from their earliest years, offering early intervention and targeted support to help children achieve literacy and social emotional gains, providing timely special education evaluation, and utilizing trauma-informed practices across our child-serving systems. Robust oversight and accountability for local school districts and alternative education settings, including detention and carceral settings, is needed to ensure that youth are not lost and permanently disconnected from their education. Supporting children with positive adult relationships and meaningful intervention in lieu of punishment and exclusion will reap dividends for these youth for years to come.  

The Center for Children’s Advocacy is committed to ensuring that all children have access to a quality education and meaningful opportunity in accordance with their rights under state and federal law. We hope this report will serve as a catalyst for meaningful discussion, systemic reform, and strengthened cross-system collaboration among education, child-serving, and juvenile justice agencies. 

To further advance these efforts, the Center for Children’s Advocacy intends to convene a community conversation that will bring together young people, authors of this report, and community partners, to discuss the report’s findings and recommendations, and identify systemic strategies to improve educational and developmental outcomes for Connecticut’s vulnerable youth and young adults.