About the Brief

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In 2014, law enforcement agencies made about 1 million juvenile arrests, each of which generated a record. Having a juvenile record reduces a youth’s prospects in life by limiting employment, educational, and housing opportunities long after the incident’s resolution. Yet a juvenile record does not have to permanently restrict a youth’s opportunities. Youth with juvenile records can reduce or completely bar public access to their records by expunging or sealing them.

Since 2009, policymakers in 31 states and Washington D.C. have created or expanded expungement policies. Still, expungement policies can be complex and rules vary widely by state. Recognizing that youth could benefit from assistance navigating this process, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) awarded $100 million in Face Forward grants to fund programs that give “youth a chance to succeed in the workplace and to avoid the stigma of a juvenile record.” In addition to supporting education and workforce development services for youth with juvenile records, the grants required programs to offer expungement and other record mitigation services and allowed the use of grant funds for collaboration with nonprofit legal service providers.

To understand more about the expungement services offered by the Face Forward grantees, the study team interviewed six grantees and the partners providing legal services in December 2015. The brief reviews expungement policies nationwide and presents information about how Face Forward grantees and their legal services partners designed and provided expungement services. This brief also describes grantees’ lessons learned. These lessons could help current Face Forward grantees and programs offering similar services to a similar population that face similar challenges.

Key Takeaways

• Leveraging the expertise of legal partners was critical as they helped assess records for eligibility, delivered expungement services, and cross-trained program case managers to help convey the benefits of expungement to youth.
• Educating youth and their families about expungement (as well as the resources available to help them navigate the system and pay fees) could improve service take-up.
• Grantees had to develop ways to navigate long, complex state expungement processes.

Citation

Henderson-Frakes, J., Diaz, H., Lacoe, J., Reed Feinberg, L. (2018). Mathematica. Expunging Records, Opening Doors: A Profile of Face Forward Grantees’ Expungement Services. Chief Evaluation Office, U.S. Department of Labor.

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This study was sponsored by the Employment and Training Administration, Office of Policy Development and Research, Division of Research and Evaluation, and was produced outside of CEO’s standard research development process.