How it was reported

Chad Day reported these stories for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette with the support of the Fund for Journalism on Child Well-Being and the National Health Journalism Fellowship, programs of the Center for Health Journalism at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Journalism.

The programs provided training and funding for Day.

The Democrat-Gazette maintained full editorial control over the content of these stories.

To report these stories, Day relied on more than 30 interviews with juvenile court judges, state Youth Services Division officials, public defenders, child advocates, policy analysts, researchers, youth service providers, juvenile probation officers, sheriff’s deputies, families involved in the juvenile justice system and children detained in juvenile detention centers.

Day reviewed several sets of data from the state Youth Services Division, the Administrative Office of the Courts, the Arkansas Department of Education, the federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, and various juvenile courts and lockups around the state.

Day also observed Family in Need of Services proceedings in juvenile court and reviewed thousands of pages of court documents, youth treatment files, statistical reports and academic studies.