Interagency Academy History

Why Interagency started.

In the early 1970’s, several communities within Seattle were experiencing higher crime rates. Some felt that this increase was at least in part attributable to youth being released from state correctional institutions. 

The key communities impacted.

• Mt. Baker (hardest hit)
• South End
• Capitol Hill
• CD – Central District

The Washington State Department of Juvenile Rehabilitation (DJR) was responsible for monitoring the parolees from these institutions (later this department was renamed the Juvenile Rehabilitation Administration or JRA). In 1973, a few representatives from DJR met with a few representatives from the Seattle Public Schools to address this issue and determine where court-involved youth would be able to attend school.

Two individuals in particular, John George from DJR and John Krueger from SPS, were instrumental in establishing the first Interagency site in the Eastlake area in 1974. This location was convenient to the DJR offices and also addressed the concern about parolees attending any of the traditional “mainstream” high schools.

The core beliefs of Interagency Academy emerged from this initial partnership – the idea that two agencies partnering together could more effectively serve youth than either could do alone. 

The original Interagency school consisted of 4 classrooms set up for the students at the Eastlake DJR office with  parole and SPS staff working together with the students.

• 2 Parole Staff (DJR staff)
• 2 Certificated Staff (SPS staff)
• 2 Classified Staff (SPS staff)

The school showed the importance of shared services teaming up together to create a common plan for court- involved youth who needed a school location in the community which would embrace them and their unique educational needs.

Interagency’s core principles held that there should be no walls or barriers as to how these young people could learn. Educational and parole staff were intentional to look at each individual’s skills, develop appropriate curriculum and  teaching strategies to help create educational plans for each student.

THE NEXT PHASE

Soon after Interagency Academy started providing services for parole youth, there began conversations from attorneys regarding the educational rights of youth detained in county facilities, to ensure that the right to be afforded education in detention. These conversations led to the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) assuming responsibility for detention school. In King County, these detention school responsibilities became another responsibility of Interagency.

Five key Interagency school sites that were created under SPS in the early years.

• Eastlake DJR
• Detention 
• Alder Academy to support students with mental health
• Mt. Baker located at Mt Baker Youth and Family Services
• Youth Education Program (YEP) – a new partnership with The City of Seattle.

All of these sites embraced the Interagency philosophy of school and agencies partnering up together to share staff, resources, funds to create meaningful alternative educational settings for students in our Seattle communities. Later additions in the 1980s included partnerships with West Seattle Youth and Family Services (various locations over time, including the WSYFS building on Delridge Way), North Seattle Youth and Family Services (located in the old Crown Hill Elementary School building), Southeast Youth and Family Services (located in Columbia City). These sites included on-campus mental health services well before such services were established in schools throughout the district.

Interagency Academy expanded its footprint under the leadership of Dr Donald Felder during the 1990’s. Dr. Felder, one of the first certified staff who helped develop the Interagency model at the 1974 inception of Interagency while working at the Eastlake campus, was instrumental in creating more community partnerships to better serve the needs of Interagency students and families.  This led to an increase in the number of Interagency sites across Seattle, providing services to people in their own communities, Dr. Felder promoted the philosophy of “schools and agencies within our community partnering up TOGETHER to provide quality education and services for our students and families.”