s. But the constant presence of police has transformed the way many schools respond to far less serious situations. PHOTO: Meridith Kohut for The New York Times Meridith Kohut for The New York/Meridith Kohut for The New York Photographs of what the facility looks like before the deinstitutionalize process are displayed on the wall at The Opportunity Center, which is ran by the Harris County Juvenile Probation Department, in Gulfton in Houston, Monday, March 24, 2025. The department closed the juvenile facility in 2019 and repurposed the building to now serve as a charter school where students can earn their GED and attend vocational classes. Yi-Chin Lee/Houston Chronicle A student is seen at the Apple Fundamental lab at The Opportunity Center, which is ran by the Harris County Juvenile Probation Department, as one of the courses for the students in Gulfton in Houston, Monday, March 24, 2025. The department closed the juvenile facility in 2019 and repurposed the building to now serve as a charter school where students can earn their GED and attend vocational classes. Yi-Chin Lee/Houston Chronicle As school districts across Texas have sent tens of thousands of children as young as 10 into the justice system, some school districts in Harris County have worked to keep more kids out of the school to prison pipeline. About 4,800 Texas children ages 10 to 13 were referred for prosecution after incidents at school during the 2024-25 academic year, often for minor misbehavior like making threats, vaping or lashing out at classmates. That is about a third more than a decade earlier, according to an investigation by The New York Times and the San Antonio Express-News, and represents about 29 kids for every 10,000 enrolled students. But in Harris County, several school districts saw substantial declines in referral rates over the same period. Spring Branch ISD recorded one of the steepest drops, from nearly 27 children per 10,000 students in grades five through eight to just six. Spring ISD's rate fell from about 16 to six, while Pasadena ISD's dropped from 16 to 10. Advertisement Article continues below this ad The statewide rise in referrals comes as Texas has expanded school policing in an effort to make children safer. After the 2022 massacre in Uvalde, state lawmakers required an armed officer at every public school, including elementary campuses. Some schools also cracked down on student misbehavior. Referrals typically happen after an officer takes a child into custody; they can lead to prosecution in juvenile court. Houston Chronicle Logo Want more Houston Chronicle? Make us a Preferred Source on Google to see more of us when you search. Add Preferred Source The reversal in Harris County, however, didn't happen overnight. Prosecutors, juvenile judges, probation officers, school administrators and community leaders spent much of the past decade rethinking how children entered the justice system, several people involved said in interviews. Their efforts expanded alternatives to prosecution by increasing diversion programs, investment funds and open communication across agencies. The changes reached nearly every level of the educational and juvenile justice systems, from how teachers handle classroom disruptions to the cases prosecutors pursue and the services available to children who might otherwise end up in detention. Advertisement Article continues below this ad It took everybody, said Charles Rotramel, chief executive of Houston ReVision, a nonprofit that works with young people who are at risk of entering the school to prison pipeline or already in the justice system. It took the juvenile court judges, it took the probation department and the DA's office all pushing in the same direction. How Harris County became the exception For years, Harris County sent large numbers of children into the Texas Juvenile Justice Department, leaving its detention center overcrowded and officials considering whether another facility was needed. More kids were in TJJD from Harris County than any other county, Rotramel said. Efforts to change that system started in the early 2000s. By 2008, faced with rising costs of detention, local officials and advocates created the Harris County Criminal Justice Coordinating Council, where intervention programs were born. In 2015, nonprofits like ReVision helped lead an effort to keep children in school rather than suspending or detain them. Advertisement Article continues below this ad But the push gained momentum in late 2018. That year, Henry Gonzales became executive director of the Harris County Juvenile Probation Department and three new judges took over the county's juvenile courts. The district attorney's juvenile division and county's mental health authority had new leaders appointed. Gonzales called 2019 the biggest turning point - when leaders who had spent years working on similar efforts, but in different branches of the system, began to coordinate more. One of the first problems they identified was how frequently school disciplinary incidents were becoming criminal cases. At the time, school district police departments accounted for roughly 40% of referrals to juvenile probation, Gonzales said. Some of those violations were students writing on desks, breaking windows or engaging in behavior that school administrators might once have handled themselves. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Minors at the juvenile detention center in Corpus Christi, Texas, put their heads down on tables. Meridith Kohut for The New York/Meridith Kohut for The New York John Jordan, then the head of the Harris County District Attorney's juvenile division, began to visit school police chiefs and show them a video of what happened after a child was arrested on campus and daily life in detention. The message, Gonzales recalled, was that a referral could carry consequences far beyond removing a student from campus for a day. Prosecutors delivered a similar message to school officials. The district attorney's office began to decline to pursue lower-level cases and worked with probation officers to expand a longstanding diversion policy. Previously, only a limited number of offenses qualified for diversion. The expanded approach made most misdemeanors eligible, with exceptions to cases involving weapons or injuries, Gonzales said. Advertisement Article continues below this ad They also helped fund diversion programs through community organizations in Houston's Fifth and Third wards, giving some children access to counseling and intervention services instead of prosecution. Our district attorney's office was suddenly saying, 'No, we don't want to prosecute those cases. Let's handle them in the most appropriate way,' Gonzales said. Soon fewer misdemeanor cases were making their way to juvenile court, where justices heard a larger share of felonies. A shift away from prosecution At the same time, judges, school officials, police departments, probation officers and nonprofits were convening to envision what a different system could look like. In 2019, many of them attended a four-day program at Georgetown University's Center for Youth Justice. It's a program where counties can opt-in and examine their data, identify their problems and establish goals for reform, both before and after detention. Prosecutors, public defenders and probation officers also came together to develop a detention screening tool to assess which children needed to remain in custody and which could be released to their families while their cases proceeded. Gonzales said the experience strengthened relationships among officials who were sometimes on opposing sides of the same cases. Just because one was from the public defender's office and one from the prosecutor's office didn't mean they were at odds with each other, he said. That same year the county began closing and repurposing juvenile facilities. One facility was closed and transformed into a youth diversion center offering counseling and up to 30 days of temporary residential care for children. The increase in diversion programs helped reduce the county's juvenile detention population from more than 300 children a day in 2018 to 130 in 2026, according to Gonzales. The biggest difference, Gonzalez said: You don't see those misdemeanors in here anymore. Loading... Some schools districts buck the trend The shift was also taking hold in schools, where many referrals begin. Across Harris County, about eight of the 10 public school districts analyzed by the Chronicle saw their juvenile referral rates decline over the past decade. Spring Branch ISD saw one of the steepest drops. In the 2014-15 school year, about 27 children ages 10 to 13 were referred to juvenile authorities after incidents at school for every 10,000 enrolled kids. A decade later, just six were. Spring ISD saw a similar decline, with referral rates falling from about 16 to six children per 10,0000 students over the same period. Pasadena ISD cut its referral rate from 16 to 10. Spring Branch Police Chief Larry Baimbridge said his officers have focused on building relationships with students, sometimes learning about potential fights before they happen. He said that approach, along with the county's broader reforms, has helped his officers address minor misconduct without resorting to criminal charges. If they need to make an arrest, they can make an arrest, he said. But if they don't and they feel like, 'You know what? That's not the way to handle this problem,' they can do that. In Aldine ISD, where referral rates fell from about 17 to 13, officials have coached teachers on how to handle minor discipline within the classroom before involving the police. Aldine ISD also began to require all school staff members to attend annual de-escalation training. And it adopted a disciplinary guide to make consequences for misbehavior more consistent across their campuses. Our actions will either escalate or de-escalate it, said Todd Lindeman, Aldine's executive director of school administration. Lindeman said that he also meets with students who have had contact with law enforcement or are showing behavior issues. He reviews their attendance, grades and disciplinary records while working with their families and probation officers. It's kinda like a web of support around the kids, he said. Like, if it's just me, then that web is not very strong. Harris County Juvenile Justice Center, 1200 Congress Avenue, is photographed in Houston, Wednesday, March 5, 2025. Yi-Chin Lee/Houston Chronicle Aldine ISD still suspends students or places them in alternative schools, but Lindeman said punishment alone does not always address the root of the problem. That's the easy way out, he said. Houston ISD also saw a slight estimated drop in referral rate from about 30 to 26 children a decade later. A district spokesperson said that the decline in referrals is in part because of how many students HISD has lost since the pandemic and the state takeover. 'I can't do this by myself' Harris County has continued to refine its approach to juvenile justice. In 2023, it invested $2 million in community organizations that provide services like after-school programs, meals, tutoring, mentoring, individual and family therapy to children at risk of entering the system. And this year, the DA's office began asking school police for laboratory testing before it will accept charges against students caught vaping THC, Baimbridge said. While the changes -and results- have been widely celebrated, some advocates cautioned that fewer referrals do not necessarily mean children are doing better. Brett Merfish, director of youth justice at Texas Appleseed, said that evaluating the reforms requires tracking whether children return to the juvenile justice system, or stay in school and receive the services they need. Where appropriate, I think putting the brakes on referring youth to the juvenile system is a positive step, Merfish said. For Gonzales, sustaining that progress requires the same collaboration that helped reshape the system. I can't do this by myself as the chief juvenile probation officer, Gonzales said.