• Teen Court/Teen Court Too receives referrals, offenders ages 10-17, from the Juvenile Assessment Center, the Juvenile Court, the State Attorney's Office or a Law Enforcement Officer.
• The Coordinator of the program logs in the child's name and charge and gives him/her a case number. A case file is now open for this youth.
• A letter is sent to the parents of the offender informing them of an appointment for them to attend with their child in the Teen Court Office. This interview lasts approximately 35-40 minutes.
• During this intake interview, the Coordinator assesses the offender's intent, attitude and the circumstances and determines whether or not to proceed with the youth in the Teen Court program.
• A court date for the hearing is given to the parents along with the instructions for court and an agreement is signed by the youth if he/she is willing to abide by the four conditions of remaining in the program, i.e. obey the rules at home, no new charges, no suspensions and no unexcused absences from school.

• The Coordinator prepares a docket of four to five cases for the courtroom hearing which is held on a Tuesday evening at 5:30 p.m. in the Manatee County Courthouse on the third floor.
• The defendant and his/her parents arrive early to be interviewed by a teen attorney. They review the summary of the incident and the interview with the Coordinator, which is prepared by the Coordinator, and prepare their defense.
• At 5:30 p.m. the Coordinator briefly reviews the proceedings for all the defendants and their families, then excuses them to an adjoining room where they will wait until their case is called by the teen bailiff.
• The Teen Court Coordinator randomly chooses the juries from the teens present in the courtroom. Juries are selected for each defendant and, if a jury member has prior knowledge of the defendant, that person is not permitted to sit on the jury. All juries must be unbiased.
• Before the Judge enters the courtroom to begin the hearing, we administer the Oath of Confidentiality to everyone in the courtroom and everyone in the waiting area whose case is scheduled to be heard.

• The Judge, who may be a real Judge or a member of the Manatee County Bar Association who volunteers his/her time in the Teen Court courtroom, enters and calls the courtroom to order and in session.
• After checking to be sure the attorneys are ready, the bailiff brings in the first defendant and the clerk reads the defendant's name and case number and we begin.
• The attorneys makes opening statements regarding the defendant and the incident, then the Judge calls the defendant to the witness stand. The defendant swears to tell the truth
• The attorneys question the defendant regarding the facts of the case so that the jury can make a reasonable and appropriate sentence.
• Once the questioning has concluded, the Judge asks the defendant to return to his/her seat at the attorney's table.
• Now we have closing arguments during which time the attorneys ask for a just and appropriate sentence.
  
  The Sentence will include community service hours, to be served at a nonprofit agency in the community, and jury duties, which means returning on succeeding Tuesdays and sitting in the jury and participate in making the sentence for other kids whose hearings will follow.
  Optional sentencing may include letters of apology to parents and victims, an essay on a related topic, curfew, house arrest and AA or NA meetings where applies and restitution if ordered.
  

• While the jury deliberates the first case, the second case begins. Then when the second case leaves the courtroom to deliberate, the first jury returns to render its decision.
• The bailiff escorts the defendant and the parent(s) back to the courtroom to hear the sentence from the jury.
  

• The defendant and his/her parent(s) meet with the Coordinator or an adult volunteer to go over the sentence and transfer the information to a contract.
• The contract will state not only the sentence bust also a time frame for completion.
• After everything is explained--the sentence, due dates, pick-up times and places--the defendant and the parent(s) are asked to sign the contract with Teen Court, agreeing to fulfill the conditions in order to successfully complete the Teen Court program.
• Also part of mandatory sentencing may be Peer Group or Teens in Transition.

Peer Group is a meeting attended by the defendant and parent(s) and is held on the third and fourth Mondays of each month. At this session the group, led by two mental health counselors, discuss issues, such as, anger, hostility, drugs, alcohol, stealing, positive and negative peer pressure and also the crimes the defendants present are charged with. It is an hour and half discussion and only one meeting is required.

Teens in Transition is an anger management course of three sessions held on three consecutive Thursday evenings. Hope Family Services provides the direction for these meetings. Offenders charged with Battery, Disorderly Conduct, Disruption of a School Function or Affray are required to attend these anger management classes.

• The defendant must arrange the community service hours work site and attend court the following Tuesday to begin jury duty.
• Any paperwork/assignments required by the contract must be turned in beginning with the first jury duty.
• When all the conditions stated on the contract have been met, the Coordinator will send to the parent(s) of the offender a successful completion report. This closes the case.
• If the offender fails to complete the sanctions in a timely manner, an unsuccessful completion report is mailed to the parent(s) and the file is sent to the Juvenile Court Office and to the State Attorney's Office. If the youth has been Court Ordered to complete Teen Court and fails, the case is returned to the Juvenile Court Office and the child is summonsed to return to Juvenile Court.
• Now the youth and parent(s) will be summonsed to appear in Juvenile Court before the Judge to account for his/her actions.