Children of prisoners seen as vulnerable group

New York State School Board Association Newsletter
March 26, 2007

By Sheila Carmody
Senior Writer

How should you respond when a student tells you his or her parent is in jail?

That’s one of the questions Alison Coleman answers for educators during training workshops she called Working Well with Children of Incarcerated Parents.

Children whose parents are in jail come to school angry, worried, confused and unable to focus on learning, said Coleman, director of Prison Families of New York, Inc., a nonprofit organization that supports families with loved ones in prison. Educators need to know how to address students’ needs to allow learning to take place in school, she said.

Between 120,000 and 150,000 New York State school children have a parent in prison, estimates Coleman, who lives in Albany. While no formal report exists for how many students in a given school have parents in prison, students sometimes
volunteer the information.

Ani Mooney, a Troy school district nurse, said she has about two students a week tell her a parent is in jail or
prison. They usually bring it up when it comes time to call a family member to pick them up from school.

Mooney was among nurses, psychologists, assistant principals and school counselors who recently attended a staff development workshop that Coleman presented in the Rensselaer County school district.

Coleman and her daughter Cecily were brought in to discuss ways school personnel can assist children who have
a parent or sibling in prison, said Mary Capobianco, Troy’s assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction.

Coleman started the Prison Families of New York organization as a result of her personal experience. She raised Cecily while her husband was incarcerated for a nonviolent crime. He
was recently released after spending 25 years in prison.

“There were times when I worried about him or was upset in school after a weekend visit to see him and did not want to leave him,” Cecily Coleman said. “It is not something that a child is able to check at the door to school. It adds another layer of stress to a child’s life.”

The Colemans recommend that educators organize support groups similar to peer-support groups schools have established for children of divorced parents. Such groups already exist outside of schools but not in schools, Coleman said. Some of the activities she suggests include:

• Reading books about prison.
• Pulling out maps and locating prison facilities.
• Talking to other children with parents in prison.

“We need to demystify prison for kids,” Coleman said. They worry because they don’t have any information about prison, she said. They fearparents have nothing to eat and no
place to sleep.

Educators’ jobs will be easier if they address the problems children have when a parent is in prison, Coleman said. Children perform better in school when their emotional needs are met.

“School is where they vent by fighting or not doing their work,” Mooney said.

The students form a hard shell and convince themselves they can deal with their emotions on their own, she said.

“Once you break through that shell, you may find a person who’s willing to learn.”

For more information on programs for educators, go to www.prisonfamiliesofnewyork.org.