Every child deserves to grow up in a safe environment with a chance to become a productive, law abiding citizen. Juvenile delinquency is a prevalent threat to our children and communities.

Holding kids accountable to the law without teaching them the law is not working. Kids can't play the game if they don't know the rules. Play by the Rules is a promising award winning program to teach law to youth to develop their sense of civic responsibility and provide them with the tools they need to prevent crime, save lives and build safer communities. Developed in 2000 in collaboration with the Alabama Department of Education, the Office of the Attorney General, and the Alabama Department of Youth Services, this innovative program is periodically updated and consists of a color-illustrated student book and a teacher guide.

Play by the Rules: Alabama Laws for Youth is a student book on Alabama law, which teaches students the laws to which our state holds them accountable. Its user-friendly, question-and-answer format includes a teacher's manual containing lesson plans and interactive teaching strategies designed to increase knowledge and understanding of the law as well as a commitment to civic responsibility. Taught as a three week unit of study, Play by the Rules has quickly become popular with both educators and students and uniquely fits Alabama's seventh-grade civics objectives. Distributed to over 70,000 students and teachers and law-related professionals each year since 2001, it has proved to be the most comprehensive law-related program for students in the United States.

Play by the Rules is periodically updated, and the student handbook is designed for use by middle school students in public, private, and home schools, by incarcerated youth in the juvenile justice system, and by youth in community settings such as scouting or church youth groups. The content is balanced and focuses on the law as it is actually written and enforced, and the curriculum in the teacher's guide provides multiple opportunities to teach both rights and responsibilities. The book meets Alabama's seventh-grade citizenship course guidelines and is correlated to other standardized testing objectives.

Training Information

For more information about Play by the Rules visit our National PBR Web site.