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particular state, court counselors have up to 30 days to determine if the complaint should be closed,

diverted, or be filed as a petition and brought to court.

The goals of this Youth Diversion Program are threefold: 1) to divert youth from juvenile

court, 2) improve the youth’s decision-making skills, and 3) empower families through education,

direction, and guidance.

Process

Since 2013, and based on the inter-agency collaborative, when an incident occurs either at

school, at a school-sponsored event/location, or in the community with a young person between the

ages of 6-17 years-old and local law enforcement is involved; diversion is considered. If the

offense is severe or the juvenile has multiple priors, he/she/they may be arrested. If not, and the

juvenile is between the ages of 6-17, lives in the county, and this is the first misdemeanor offense,

the officer verifies contact information, reviews the young person’s criminal history in the police

database and generates a report. Then, the case is forwarded to the diversion supervisor to

determine eligibility for the program. If the youthful offender does not meet the eligibility criteria,

the case is sent back to the arresting officer and the youth is considered “rejected at screening.”

Eligibility for the Youth Diversion Program is affected by acquiring new charges or having a prior

criminal history, moving out of the county, failing to appear for scheduled intake, being unable to

contact or providing invalid contact information. Also, youth, and/or parents/guardians may elect

not to participate. For cases which meet the eligibility criteria, the youth is assigned to one of the

police department’s Diversion Specialists. At this point, the Diversion Specialist contacts the

juvenile and his/her/their parent/guardian to explain the terms of the diversion program as an

alternative to juvenile justice processing and to schedule an intake with the young person and the

parent(s)/guardian(s).

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