With Reauthorization of the JJDPA – and multiple states in various phases of raising the age (RTA), the time is right for SW and its Grand Challenges to advocate for a national age of majority. The recent reauthorization includes a strengthening of the decarceration of status offenders, extending sight and sound separation to juveniles tried as adults, and changing Disproportionate Minority Contact (DMC) to Racial and Ethnic Disparities (RED) and requiring action from states to reduce overrepresentation of children of color in the juvenile justice system (P.L. 115-385). But the reauthorization does nothing to address the considerable variation in the age of majority/juvenile jurisdiction across the U.S. Four states continue to automatically exclude 17-year-olds from juvenile court jurisdiction based solely on their age - Georgia, Michigan, Texas, and Wisconsin. States that have raised the age of majority to 18. This paper is a policy advocacy paper to raise the national age of majority to 18. This article is underway and almost close to completion!
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