Art by Arlene Mayerson – 2014
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Posters are available with a suggested donation of $60 to cover the production and shipping costs. If you would like one or more posters, please email Ingrid Tischer, Director of Development, at itischer@dredf.org.
“At some point, a student who has not gotten the academic help he or she needs is so far behind, so alienated, and has heard themselves described as a ‘bad student’ so repeatedly that misbehavior becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. One of our parent advocates always points out at parent trainings that the fear that a child will be labeled in special education ignores the fact that many of the kids that face repeated suspensions and sub-par academic performance already have labels at school: ‘bad’, ‘lazy’, ‘defiant’. Their parents are also given similar labels.” (Arlene Mayerson, DREDF Directing Attorney, Ending the School-to-Prison Pipeline, Hearing Before the United States Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights, December 10, 2012)
The “School-to-Prison Pipeline” (STPP) refers to the policies and practices that push our nation’s schoolchildren, especially our most at-risk children, out of classrooms and into the juvenile and criminal justice systems.[1] Because this issue affects minority students of color with disabilities, dismantling the Pipeline requires an intersectional approach to disability and racial discrimination.
DREDF believes that a critical yet overlooked aspect of this crisis is the widespread failure of public schools to implement the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the landmark educational rights legislation passed 40 years ago, and other disability rights laws that mandate services for struggling students with disabilities. Our mission in this area is to disrupt the Pipeline through legal and legislative advocacy that ensures all students with disabilities receive robust special education and related services in inclusive settings.
The Problem
“I will continue to use those words [racism and ableism], because when we talk about biases and when we talk about stereotyping, it is easy to make one person a bogeyman. It is even easier to make the system the bogeyman, and not talk about the ways in which it is practiced in IEP meetings—those are individuals who were in the room making choices. That is, it is not the system functioning as in some kind of air that we breathe. It is peoples’ conscious decisions in those moments, sometimes fostered and funneled by unconscious thoughts, beliefs and ideas. But then that plays out in actual practice.” (Talina Jones, Parent Participant, National Council on Disability Quarterly Meeting and Convening on the School-to-Prison Pipeline, October 2014)
Students who qualify for special education too often receive inferior services in segregated settings and incur repeated disciplinary actions. According to the U.S. Department of Education (PDF), students with disabilities are more than twice as likely to receive an out-of-school suspension (13 percent) than students without disabilities (6 percent). Students with disabilities represent 12 percent of the overall student population, yet make up 25 percent of all students involved in a school-related arrest, 58 percent of all students placed in seclusion, and a staggering 75 percent of all students physically restrained at school.
The numbers are even worse for students of color with disabilities. Over a quarter of African-American boys with disabilities, and 19 percent of African-American girls with disabilities, received at least one out-of-school suspension in 2011—2012. African-American students with disabilities represent 18.7 percent of the special education population, but 49.9 percent of special education students in correctional facilities.
Many disabled youth in the juvenile justice and criminal justice systems go through general education with unaddressed academic, behavioral, or mental health needs. For example, one study found that up to 85 percent of children in juvenile detention facilities have disabilities that make them eligible for special education, yet only 37 percent receive services while in school.[2]
The Solution
This troubling data suggests widespread non-compliance with IDEA and other disability rights laws guaranteeing a Free and Appropriate Public Education (FAPE). A thorough review of a suspended or failing student’s file will likely show that he or she is in need of additional academic and behavioral supports, including but not limited to a referral for IDEA or Response to Intervention (RTI) services. This type of early invention is the key to changing their STPP trajectory.
For students with Individualized Education Plans (IEPs), short-term suspensions and other warning signs should trigger a review of the IEP to determine if there is a problem with instruction or other underlying problems that schools cannot remedy through exclusionary discipline.
DREDF is also committed to ensuring the disability community has a voice in the national STPP conversation. As the statistics demonstrate, we cannot address this crisis without a disability lens.
But in order to sell the promise of the IDEA in diverting students from the Pipeline, we must first address the fact that many families reject special education because of the stigma attached to disability. School-to-Prison Pipeline reform must include efforts to combat the disability stigma that schools have too often re-enforced through segregation and sub-par curricula.
Read
Breaking the School-to-Prison Pipeline for Students with Disabilities
a report researched and written by DREDF for the National Council on Disability. The School-to-Prison Pipeline (STPP) refers to the practice of pushing students out of school and into the criminal justice system.The report’s findings document that students with disabilities, especially students of color with disabilities, are at the greatest risk of being thrust into the STPP.
[1] American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), “What Is The School-to-Prison Pipeline?” (last accessed April 10, 2015).
[2] National Council on Disability, “National Disability Policy: A Progress Report,” 2011 (PDF). (last accessed April 10, 2015).
Physical restraint or seclusion are only properly used when the student’s behavior poses an immediate danger of serious physical harm to the
self or others. Their purpose is not punitive or disciplinary yet these practices continue to be applied when students are judged annoying or disruptive but not dangerous, and when lower—level intervention earlier would have worked preventively.
As DREDF shared in a recent issue of our monthly Special EDition:
“The federal Office of Civil Rights (OCR) collects data that shows that restraint and seclusion of students with disabilities served by IDEA represent 12 percent of the student population but 58 percent of those placed in seclusion or involuntary confinement and 75 percent of those physically restrained at school to immobilize them or reduce their ability to move freely.
“There is a racial dimension, too — Black students represent 19 percent of students with disabilities served by IDEA but 36 percent of the students who are restrained at school through the use of a mechanical device or equipment designed to restrict their freedom of movement.”
Currently, there is no data proving that students — including very young children — who are subjected to improper restraint and seclusion practices are being channeled into the Pipeline. But they do share two important components: a disproportionate negative effect on disabled students of color, and both inappropriately respond to student behavior through disciplinary and/or punitive measures.
Whether students are traumatized by being held face down on the floor or kept alone in a room for long periods, or suspended, expelled, and thrown into the justice system, the results are young people who lose any future their education would have made possible.
The purpose of this Guide Guide for Advocates and Families on Positive Behavior Interventions & Supports (PBIS) in School is to give advocates, family members, and school personnel an introduction to the use of Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) in response to behavior and to shape good behavior. PBIS aims to help create equitable and safe classrooms for all students.
A small but growing number of schools across the United States have adopted PBIS-infused discipline policies in response to traditional discipline policies that have resulted in disproportionate discipline of students of color and disabled students. Schools implementing PBIS respond to poor behaviors by implementing PBIS rather than responding by sending students out of the classroom.
The policies adopted by the schools and districts listed below can be used as models. Developing a PBIS-based discipline policy is a first-step. Following the policy with fidelity in implementation, as with all things, is critical to the success of PBIS and students.
Chicago Public Schools
Chicago, IL
Denver Public Schools
Denver, Colorado
Kern High School District
Kern County, CA
Oakland Unified School District
Oakland, CA
San Francisco Unified School District
San Francisco, CA
Synergy Alternative High School
East Hartford, CT
Valhalla Elementary School
Auburn, WA
Visalia Unified School District
Visalia, CA
Vista del Mar Middle School
San Clemente, CA
Please contact me as this is a fight I am currently working on and trying to change at the state level for Illinois.
I am glad and hopeful more schools will adopt the PBIS program. A change is needed. I also believe there needs to be more outlets for students other than academic. The arts, mechanical, sports are but a few things that students should have to help them stay in school
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Here some of the tips which can help the students.
1. Let them concentered on their sports.
2. Give them yoga and medication Class.
3. Upgrade their skills with new technologies.
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It would be great to learn how to be an advocate or to fund attorneys who can help individuals or at least communities. Our District’s prior supervisor stated the way they deal with kids with mental health issues is through discipline, i.e. they start with “discipline” early – in elementary school, so only a few are left in the District by high school and then they get kicked out, pushed into the GED program, etc.
When will someone challenge the Educational system and fight to make School District attorneys represent the students? They should not be protecting Districts, Administrators and the School Board from violating students rights. Districts and Administrators have their own attorneys through multiple other organizations, i.e. School Board associations, State Administrator organizations. Due process hearings, the tax-payer funded School attorney is fighting against providing students their rights as provided by federal law and is protecting administrators who lie about federal and state laws and district policies. The State department of ed says it is a “fair” process… parents who have little resources and no knowledge of the law going against attorneys. It is not fair. It is an economic injustice and discrimination. Our tax-payer funded school attorneys should be fighting to protect the students. Our state department of education, who is investigating our District for multiple violations of law and policy, told us we should hire an attorney to protect our son during the investigation due to the discrimination and retaliation he has faced. Hence, for our son to receive FAPE, we are supposed to hire an attorney. There is nothing “free” about that Educational system. We are repeatedly told by our school district that the School District attorney has consulted with OSBA (Oregon School Board Association) attorneys and the Administrator’s organizations (which has attorneys as well). So basically, they have a team of attorneys against our son to figure out how they can further violate federal laws and hide it behind legalese, because parents do not have enough money to hire attorneys to get their child a “FREE” and appropriate public education. The system is completely broken and someone needs to address the economic injustice that is leading to horrendous discrimination, intimidation, and retaliation against students with disabilities and their families.
Melody, did anyone respond to you? How are you doing?
Hello, my son and I are facing the school to prison pipeline problem. My son is extremely academically behind and has been through many suspensions and labeled as the “misbehaved defiant student. What can I do? how can I get training and advocate for my son? can you please help me. thank you