Disrupting the School-to-Prison Pipeline
The “school-to-prison pipeline” is a phenomenon where children of vulnerable populations are improperly educated and disciplined, quit — or get forced out of — school, and end up incarcerated. In essence, failing students, often males of color who are learning disabled, are channeled into the juvenile discipline or criminal justice system.
Arrests and criminalization certainly occur in schools, especially with the current trend of increasing police presence in educational settings. This direct route into the criminal justice system disproportionately affects young boys of color. However, the softer tactics, like exclusionary discipline, are also considerably harsher for children with disabilities or for young minority boys.
The chances of getting a fair shot at an education and equal access to opportunity is even slimmer for a child who is a member of more than one minority group. For example, LGBTQ students are also disproportionally driven into the school-to-prison pipeline. In fact, they are often the most harshly disciplined for their responses to bullying from other children, and their experiences in schools can be toxic enough to lead to chronic absenteeism.
The child from a vulnerable group who also has a learning disability suffers most of all — these children are disciplined more harshly, subjected to lower expectations, and usually do not get the services that they are entitled to.
A 2013 study by the US Department of Education Office for Civil Rights found that, when compared to white peers, black students were:
•about four times more likely to receive out-of-school suspension; and
•nearly two times more likely to be expelled without educational support, or transferred to underperforming disciplinary centers that lack the needed support.
For these children, less time in schools correlates to an increased number of arrests.
As many parents of children with disabilities can confirm anecdotally, students with disabilities are overrepresented in school discipline cases. The aforementioned study found that a disabled child of color was twice as likely to be disciplined, suspended, or expelled than a white peer.
It is clear from the data that there is a tremendous racial component to the school-to-prison pipeline, which is also affected by police presence in schools. While the school must take into account whether troublesome behavior is a manifestation of a child’s disability, an arresting police officer does not.
Without this protective measure, children are far more likely to enter the juvenile justice system — which can have catastrophic consequences. At suspension sites and in juvenile detention facilities, a child’s ability to learn is considerably disrupted. The break in educational continuity impedes IEP goal tracking, the work is often less rigorous, and the school days are shorter.
What can be done to solve this problem?
Ask for Clarification: It is important for parents to clarify whether their child is officially suspended when they pick them up from school after a behavioral situation. Schools can spin the removal by saying that the parents chose to voluntarily take the child out. However, if a school suspends a child for ten consecutive days, it automatically triggers a manifestation determination review or MDR. This review makes the school pause and ask whether the behaviors were a manifestation of the child’s disability. If so, the child cannot be removed from school.
Request an FBA: Ongoing behavioral issues should be addressed in the child’s IEP. Parents can request a functional behavior assessment (FBA) which examines behaviors and asks: Why is the child doing this? The evaluator will observe and then describe the antecedents of behaviors, the demands on the child, the environment, etc. to determine the child’s payoff, i.e. what is gained from the behavior?
The goal of the FBA is to form a hypothesis of the function of the behaviors — once the function is identified, a Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP) can be instituted to provide educators and school staff with the tools needed to best support the child.
Know the Law: It is also important for parents to understand that the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) still applies to students at suspension sites and in juvenile detention facilities as well. The student has rights even if the child didn’t have an IEP when she was remanded to the facility. The state still has an obligation to identify, locate, and evaluate children in a juvenile justice system as well.
This systemic failure can seem like an insurmountable problem for parents, communities, and attorneys who advocate for children. Despite this, actions and interventions at the right time can truly change the course of a life. The more that this issue is visible in the public sphere, the more change we can expect to see. Societal reform will occur from the accumulation of small, personal actions. We can each do our part to disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline and decrease the inequality that results.
Jonathan Gottlieb
Partner
195 Montague Street
14th Floor
Brooklyn Heights, NY 11201
Jonathan@GottliebFirm.com
(646) 820-8506