The Effect of Intensive Intervention for Children with Incarcerated Parents

• In Event: Intergenerational Consequences of Incarceration and Violence: Racial Disparities and Family Mobility

Abstract

Children with incarcerated parents face a greater likelihood of negative later-life outcomes, including lower educational attainment and a higher risk of future criminalized behavior. Early, intense intervention to improve school outcomes may be needed to short circuit this negative cycle. Finlay, Mueller-Smith and Street (2023) show that at the time of a parent’s felony conviction, children are about 20% more likely to be behind their age-appropriate grade in school. Such negative interactions with school can directly lead to poor outcomes as adults. The strongest predictor of adult incarceration among children in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) is being suspended from school, and Bacher Hicks et al. (2019) show that a student exogenously assigned to a school which uses suspensions more frequently ends up more likely to be arrested as an adult. Thus, reducing interactions with school discipline may be key for disrupting intergenerational cycles of incarceration. In this study we measure the effectiveness of intensive, long-term services to children with incarcerated parents provided by Kidz2Leaders (K2L), an Atlanta-area nonprofit organization. K2L services begin with Camp Hope, a week-long, faith-based overnight summer camp designed specifically for children with incarcerated parents. Participants are invited to re-enroll in camp every summer until age 15, after which they can become counselors. Beyond summer camp, children receive additional programming throughout high school such as academic support, career mentoring, and connections to internships. K2L also provides comprehensive support for caregivers, including a full-time social worker who can connect families to financial resources as well as regular events and retreats that build social and emotional support for adults–mostly mothers and grandmothers–who are navigating a common experience of raising children while a family member is incarcerated. Overall, K2L provides services notable for their intensity and duration to children with incarcerated parents. To study the effect of K2L participation on student outcomes, we combine K2L’s participation records with student-level educational records from two large school districts in the Atlanta area from 2003-2024. We use a difference-in-differences approach to compare participants in K2L’s programming to similar youth who participate in K2L’s programming during later years. We find suggestive but imprecise evidence that participating in K2L’s suite of services may reduce disciplinary incidents and the risk of chronic absenteeism for participating students. Event study analyses reveal that disciplinary effects, including the likelihood of having any incident or being suspended, appear immediately after participation before progressively fading away. Meanwhile, effects on chronic absenteeism take longer to develop. Findings imply that intensive, peer- and family-focused interventions may be an effective tool for supporting youth experiencing parental incarceration.

Author

• Lindsey Rose Bullinger, Georgia Institute of Technology
  Presenting Author