A good program is one, which is used only if the law has been broken. For smaller violations of local rules like bringing alcohol to the school outside the evenings when the "bag-parties" are held, the city counsel should contact the police, so they can change the police regulation in the city, so it is a misdemeanor.
Drug use could be handled by the parents giving the authorities a secret hint so they can order a drug test in court.
A second demand to a program is that the child should be kept in the local school at all cost. No In-house suspension in a special boot camp styled school as they do in Texas where the punishment push aside any qualified education.
The punishment should take place before and after school. We have created
this suggestion to a Danish first offender program.
Basically the daily schedule is:
*05:00-05:30 report in, get home work checked
*until 07.00 Physical Education & Breakfast (Parent / Child. Hour long walk followed by all eating together.)
*07.00 Off to School
*Until 15:30 School and if they leave before they should go to a homework cafe.
*15:30 - 16:30 Physical Education
*16:30 - 17:00 Some kind of community service
*17:00 - 17:30 Group conversation (Therapy)
*17:30 - 18:00 Departure for home
One or both parents should be present in the morning and the afternoon, because they also have something to learn once the partipation in the program is over. Some therapy meetings should be parents / children divided some where 2-3 families are put together with various topics.
The important part is that the child gets to spend his evening with the family.
If the child choose to leave the program by running, sanctions including sleeping at the kiddie jail could be imposed for a shorter period, so the family has to bring the child to the kiddie jail after dinner and get the child in the morning. But it should be a night stay only and after 3-5 nights the child should be given a chance to stand before the group and ask to return home if he or she wants to.
Missing homework or "Choosing out" should not result in nights outside the home but be punished with a longer stay in the program. We have a smiley system in Denmark. The punishment chould be 3 negative smileys resulting in an extra day.
I think this program has what it takes.
1) Bringing the parents into the program, so they learn something during the process and get a lot of extra time with their child.
2) Keeps the child in the school. No lost in merits. By forcing them into homework cafes they can use leisure time to improve their situation.
3) Unpleasant, so the children does not want to go back.
4) Exercise in a healthy way.
Appendix:
Bag-parties are parties where the parents make a bag with alcohol for their underaged child only - an old Danish custom. The parties are supervised at the school property by volunteer parents and the bags are guarded, so there is no cheating.
Homework cafe is a place where students, who can not be coached properly at home regarding schooling, can go and get help from either retired teachers or super-students, who are paid to help. They are founded by most city halls in the battle against the social heritage.