Keeping Kids In School and Out of Court
Resource type: Research Report
New York City School-Justice Partnership Task Force |
The next mayor of New York City should quickly establish an inter-agency initiative, in collaboration with the courts, to significantly reduce suspensions, summonses, and arrests of public school students while shifting to positive approaches to discipline, according to this report from the New York City School-Justice Partnership Task Force.
The 45-member Task Force, an Atlantic grantee, found the number of school suspensions in New York City had grown 40 percent since 2006 and that black students were four times more likely to be suspended than white students. Moreover, nearly three out of every four of the 882 arrests counted in the 2012 school year were for misdemeanors; 64 percent of the youth arrested were sent to adult Criminal Court, and students as young as 11 were being arrested.
The report underscores the need for effective and fair school discipline—with schools creating and nurturing a climate and culture that promotes positive behavior—and for targeted, consistent collaboration between the education, justice, and social service systems, as well as the communities they serve.
In the Media
> Editorial: The School to Prison Pipeline, The New York Times, 29 May 2013
> The school-to-prison pipeline: How ‘horseplay’ puts kids in jail, MSNBC, 31 May 2013
> Task Force Urges Changes in School Discipline, WNYC SchoolBook, 30 May 2013
Learn More
> Advocates for Children of New York
NYS Permanent Judicial Commission on Justice for Children, which sponsored the New York City School-Justice Partnership Task Force, is an Atlantic grantee.