Two new reports offer more evidence that school discipline policies are harmful to students and communities –- and offer practical recommendations on what to do.
First is a new report from the Justice Policy Institute, Education Under Arrest: The Case Against Police in Schools. The title sums it up:
- school resource officers (SROs) don’t make schools safer;
- schools that have them are more likely to arrest their students for misbehavior;
- sending youth to the justice system makes it harder for them to complete their education; and
- youth of color and teens with disabilities are unfairly impacted.
Among other things, Education Under Arrest recommends that all SROs be removed from schools –- but failing that, it suggests several other ways to avoid unnecessarily sending youth to the justice system for minor infractions.
For example, it recommends using graduated responses to misbehavior; or, juvenile courts can review the validity of arrests and referrals originating in schools, in order to divert students sent to court for minor offenses.
The second report, “Educate Every Child: Promoting Positive Solutions to School Discipline in Virginia” -- put out by one of NJJN's members in Virginia, the Legal Aid Center's JustChildren Program -- documents school suspensions/expulsions in Virginia, the negative impact of harsh school disciplinary policies on students and community safety, and makes the case that there are more effective ways to deal with student misbehavior.
Most interesting takeaway: Virginia has already implemented a program called “Effective Schoolwide Discipline,” which reduced out-of-school suspensions between 2007 and 2010 by 75 percent in the general population, and by 86 percent in special education programs. It does this by teaching all students to conform to a set of common expectations and providing individualized support to those who need it. Despite the program’s success, it has only been implemented in 12 percent of the state’s schools.