Overview
About Our Website
Thanks for visiting our new website. If you’ve visited us before, you might notice that our new site is quite a dramatic departure from the previous design. That’s because we saw an opportunity to use the design to help visitors understand more about the youth in our care, and the programs that help inspire and revitalize them.
Our redesign process began several years ago by analyzing site visitation statistics. We found that our current site placed barriers between our users and the content that they needed. Basically, finding stuff was difficult. Correcting that serious problem was our most critical task. To that end, we have implemented three key features: user-focused architecture, a server-side site search tool, and a document library. What does that mean?
- User-focused architecture: Website content is intricately managed on the back-end using a content management system ↑ so that the user experience on the front-end is clean and comprehensible
- Server-side search tool: We don’t rely on third-party applications to index our site, so everything is searchable, and there are no ads to interrupt your experience.
- Document library: Management of over 1800 documents (and counting) in over 400 categories (and counting) means that every document is categorized and searchable.
Once the site was organized, we focused on the design. We have a valuable resource in our education program: our art educators. We asked them to work with students in our facilities to provide illustrations on the themes of home, nature, and safety. The artwork they sent us was nothing less than astounding, and helped inspire every nuance of the site’s design and navigation. To find out more about the effort, take a look at the news article Teachers and Students Help Illustrate New Website.
Looking forward, we hope to provide new illustrations on a regular basis, and to rely on the inspirational work of the youth in our care to not only help tell our story, but demonstrate through their work how their care is progressing.
Accessibility
The Texas Juvenile Justice Department is committed to maintaining a website that is accessible to all users. We follow the guidelines established by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), legislative requirements provided by the Federal Government's Section 508 standards, and the definition of a generally accessible Internet site as defined in the Texas Administrative Code Section 206 - State WebSites. As part of our commitment, each new web page or application is reviewed and evaluated utilizing various validation resources prior to its release. Additionally, we have also included features that are designed to improve accessibility for users with disabilities, which include:
- We use a content management system to manage the site, and to keep content separate from styles.
- We have supplied all of our site’s images with Alt tags, short descriptions of the image, which aid users who listen to the content of the site by using a screen reader, rather than reading the site.
- We have implemented the use of headings, lists and website structure in a consistent manner.
- Using hypertext links that make sense when read out of context rather than utilizing broad language such as "click here."
- Applying summaries to tables and creating them in a manner that allows for line by line reading.
- Providing alternatives in cases where content may not be easily accessed or accessible.
The Texas Juvenile Justice Department welcomes comments on how to make our website more accessible to individuals living with a disability. If you are using assistive technology and the format of any of the material presented on our website interferes with your ability to access the desired information, please contact our website administrator. To enable us to respond in a manner most helpful to you, please indicate the nature of your accessibility problem, the desired format in which you would prefer to receive the material, the web address of the requested material and your contact information.
Security
Information resources residing at state agencies are valuable assets belonging to the citizens of Texas. The Texas Department of Information Resources (TJJD) helps government agencies and educational institutions assure the integrity, availability, and confidentiality of these critical assets.
For more information about information security, please visit the Texas DIR website.
Link Policy
Advance permission to link to the TJJD website is not necessary; however, our subpages may change at any time without notice. Entities and individuals linking to the TJJD website must verify links to our subpages.
Entities and individuals linking to the TJJD website shall not capture our pages within frames, present TJJD content as its own, or otherwise misrepresent TJJD content. Furthermore, they shall not misinform users about the origin or ownership of TJJD content. Certain information on the our site may be trademarked, service-marked, or otherwise protected as intellectual property. Protected intellectual property must be used in accordance with state and federal laws and must reflect the proper ownership of the intellectual property.
Any link to the TJJD website should be a full forward link that passes the client browser to TJJD unencumbered.
The "Back" button should return the visitor to original site if the visitor wishes to back out.
Links from the TJJD Website
This section outlines the criteria and requirements that external websites must meet to have a link on the the TJJD website. It also details how links are accepted and removed from the TJJD website.
TJJD reserves the right to link to external websites that it feels would provide a service or otherwise be of value to constituents.
Acceptance Criteria
The TJJJD website links to federal, state, and local government websites that provide information and services of benefit to Texas citizens, Texas local government, and Texas state agencies. At its discretion, TJJD will consider link requests to non-governmental websites that contain information and/or services that further the purpose of TJJD, including the websites of TJJD-contracted vendors,.
The TJJD website is not a forum for public communication and debate. The criteria outlined in this section have been established to ensure that our website remains a non-public forum.
Every link request must undergo review to determine its relevance and appropriateness to the purpose of TJJD. Links are approved for our site based on the following criteria:
- The external website corresponds with and is appropriate to our purpose.
- The site does not exhibit hate, bias, discrimination, pornography, libelous or otherwise defamatory content; advocate or promote the use of alcohol, tobacco, or currently illegal substances; belong to or support a political affiliation; or further the agenda of a political organization or candidate running for office.
- TJJD reserves the right to deny links if it determines that a website contains misleading or unsubstantiated claims, conflicts with the our purpose, or does not meet one or more of the criteria set forth above.
Review Process
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Contact our website administrator, specifying "Link Request" in the subject line. Each link request should address how the site meets the acceptance criteria outlined above.
- The link request will be reviewed against the acceptance criteria set forth above. All decisions are final.
- Approved sites must comply with the following conditions for link maintenance and may be required to enter into a written linking agreement with TJJD.
Conditions for Link Maintenance
To give superior customer service to citizens and businesses accessing governmental information and services through TJJD, we require that external websites linked from TJJD meet the following conditions:
- The external site must provide the user with access to an email address and/or a customer service telephone number so that users may contact the site if there are problems with format, accuracy, timeliness, or payment processing.
- Linked sites should not excessively burden the TJJD customer support system. If the site excessively burdens the TJJD customer support system, TJJD has discretion to remove linked site off of the TJJD website.
- When the user clicks on the external website link, he/she must have easy access back to TJJD. One of two options can accomplish this:
- A link to TJJD can be established on the external website's main page.
- The "Back" button returns the user to TJJD.
- Linked sites must have a privacy and security policy accessible from their home page informing the user of what information is collected, how it is collected, and how it is used. TJJD encourages linked sites to comply with industry-accepted accessibility standards to ensure that persons with disabilities may access these sites.
- Linked sites must notify TJJD if the site to which TJJD links becomes inaccurate or inactive.
Removal Process
TJJD reserves the right to remove links if it determines that a website contains misleading or unsubstantiated claims, conflicts with the purpose of TJJD, or does not meet one or more of the criteria set forth above.
Links from TJJD will be reviewed regularly and may be removed for the following reasons:
- The link no longer points to the original information or resource to which it was intended to point.
- The website pointed to by the link contains inaccurate or misleading information or has changed such that it is no longer in compliance with the acceptance criteria.
- The website pointed to by the link violates the conditions for link maintenance.
- Access to the information has become difficult due to non-standard formatting, lengthy download times, or intrusive advertising.
- The link is permanently unreachable or remains unavailable for a lengthy period.
- The external website fails to comply with the written linking agreement, if any.
- The decision of TJJD is final as to whether a link is to be removed from TJJD.
Privacy Policy
Privacy and Security Policy
TJJD maintains this website as a public service. This policy describes TJJD's privacy and security practices regarding information collected from visitors to the site, including what information is collected and how that information is used. The policy applies to all pages beginning with www.tjjd.texas.gov.
Please note that all information collected or maintained by TJJD is subject to the provisions of the Texas Public Information Act (TGC 552). The email addresses of most members of the public who communicate with state agencies through the Internet is confidential under Texas law. Exceptions to confidentiality may be reviewed at TGC 552.137.
An individual who submits information in electronic format through this website is entitled, on request, to receive and review the information TJJD collects about the individual, and to have TJJD correct the information. Contact TJJD with your request.
Use and Release of Information
Cookies
TJJD uses persistent, first-party cookies to track and report visitor information and collect information via web-based forms. TJJD does not implement third-party cookies.