Other mistake: When the cop puts his cup of coffee down and says "Jen, put it down!", the series of shots is very wonky. He suddenly gets much lower between cuts, gets into an unrealistic position for the stunt to have the vase smashed over his head. Finally, when he lands, there's a bunch of glass perfectly still on the floor, which was obviously already placed there, in addition to a few pieces that are dropped from above.
Other mistake: When Michelle is making a video about her nativity set-up, we get a split screen of her recording and the phone's POV, but the way Michelle is moving her phone doesn't match the movement in the phone POV in the slightest.
Answer: They were blamed for the death of Jake's foster brother, which was deemed a terrible accident, and they were sent to the reform school as a punishment. Presumably, when they had to leave the reform school given what happened, they were instead given community service as punishment.
TedStixon