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School to Prison Pipeline
6
Jennifer Rose Miller
Texas Organizing Project
09/12/2022
School to Prison Pipeline
Purpose for this Presentation
2012
-Intro to the school-to-prison pipeline in the U.S. and Texas
-Provide a breakdown of promising policies and highlight areas of improvement
-Figuring out where TOP can plug in
Why
What is the School to Prison Pipeline?
What
-System of policies and procedures that disproporitionately places poor Black and Latino students into the criminal justice system
-Exclusionary disciplinary practices: expulsions, suspensions, arrests
How does this happen?
-Use of police in schools resulting in the criminalization of adolescent behavior.
-Over-reliance on suspensions and expulsions to curb misbehavior
-Unequal application of EDP's
-"Zero-tolerance" policies and state laws
How
Policing on School Grounds
Policing
- 70% of in school arrests are of Black and Latino students
- LGBTQ and disabled students have a higher risk of arrest and referral to juvenile criminal courts
- Prison-like environments lead to harsh discipline tactics
- Metal detectors, armed guards, surveillance cameras, police dogs, and strip searches
- Suspension, expulsions, transfers to alternative schools, incarceration and mandatory community supervision (probation).
Exclusionary Discipine Practices
EDP's
- Exclusionary discipline practices refer to methods for disciplining students that result in students being excluded from their current learning environment.
- Examples
- Out of school suspensions
- Expulsion
- Placement in alternative schools
- Incarceration
Zero Tolerance Policies
- Mandatory punishments for breaking certain school rules and state laws
- Enforced by EDP's up to/including referral to law enforcement
- Some zero-tolerance policies are enacted by school districts
- Some zero-tolerance polices are enacted by state law
- Unequal enforcement and consequence(s) based on race, ability, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status
Zero-Tolerance Policies
Zero Tolerance in Texas
- Implemented in in 1995, updated in 2009
- TX state law requires school districts have a code of conduct that firmly establishes behaviors, circumstances, and punishments
- Must be specific to school district rules and state law standards
- Clearly enumerates what will cause removal from a classroom setting and where student will be placed as punishment.
Deep Dive
TX Zero Tolerance Contd.
- Because of discretion given to districts in 2009 - punishment severity varies widely
- Many beyond the scope of established TX standards
- TX Lege approves HB 171
- Consideration of factors like self defense, mens rea (criminal intent/state of mind), disability, and discipinary history
- Suspension for both off and on campus behavior and ISS and OSS
- Criminalization - Class C misdemeanors and above
- Expulsion
Continued
Criminalizing Children
Jailing Kids
- Class C misdemeanor tickets can be issued for a wide variety of relatively innocuous behavior that is not necessarily criminal.
- Making loud/disruptive noises in class
- Enticing a student to skip class
- Using curse words/"inappropriate language"
- Entering a classroom w/o permission
- "Just a ticket" argument
- Next time you get "just a ticket" don't pay that ticket, let it go into warrant status, you will be arrested.
Disciplinary Alternative Education Placement
- Removal from general student body and placement in alternative school
- Discretion of enformcent established in 2009 allows for students to be placed in DAEP even for behaviors off-campus
- Drug/alcohol use and sales, fighting, public lewdness (2 teens caught in a car most common eg of public lewdness)
- Just like everything else in CJS, enforcement and consequences are unequal based on race, class, socioeconomic status.
DAEP
Unfair Enforcement & Consequences
- Almost 60% of students have some kind of disciplinary action taken against them
- Half of that 60% had at least 4 suspensions
- Other half were receiving 8 or more suspensions and being expelled and/or referred to DAEP
- African American and intellectually disabled students were most likely to receive disciplinary consequences
Unfair Treatment
Promising Policies
- Former Governor Rick Perry's criminal justice division partners with Waco ISD to develop and implement a progressive sanction and diversion program
Forward
Waco ISD
Several options available as disciplinary intervention options
Peer=to-peer mediation and mentoring
Parent and Student Education Diversion Program
Teen Court
Alternative to Waco ISD DAEP placement for fighting as was mandated by code of conduct
This new diversion program has been credited with reducing issued citations by 27%
Waco ISD
Possible Steps Forward
1. Divert Funds to a Pilot Project
2. Re-tooling the use of Texas Accountability Ratings
3. Reforming Statutory Mandatory Responses
4. Legislative Enactment of a Tiered Model
Expansion
Deeper Dive into Steps Forward
1. There are already funds earmarked for Texas DFPS and other state agencies with the express purpose of reducing delinquency, truancy, substance abuse disorder prevention and treatment, coming out to over 70 million. These could be retooled into programs that are part of the 2nd step in a tiered discipline approach.
2. Texas Accountability Ratings provide transparency in education ratings and quality - discipline efficacy should as well.
3. Reforming Chapter 37 of TX Education Code to reevaluate mandatory triggers to DAEP placement
4. Enacting Waco's tiered model on TX Leg level citing inefficacy of zero-tolerance model.