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ACLU Resources 

Links to ACLU publications and ACLU work in the news on issues of the school-to-prison pipeline

Know Your Rights

Overview and Handouts

Reports

Presentations

ACLU in the News

• 2020

• 2019

• 2018​

• 2017

• 2016

• 2015

• 2014

• 2013

Know Your Rights

• Know Your Rights: A Handbook for Public School Students in Pennsylvania, 2017

• Know Your Rights: Interacting with Police in Schools

• Know Your Rights! A Guide for LGBT High School Students

• 5 Things Public Schools Can and Can’t Do When It Comes to Dress Codes

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Overview and Handouts

• Supporting Pennsylvania Students: The Choice, 2019

• Students and the Justice System: Collateral Consequences, 2019

• School Policing: What the Research Shows, 2019

• Race, Discipline, and Safety in US Public Schools, 2018

• Q&A on School Discipline for Pennsylvania School Leaders, 2018

• Q&A on School Policing for Pennsylvania School Leaders, 2019

• School Safety Advocacy Toolkit, 2018

• Locating the School-to-Prison Pipeline

• School-to-Prison Pipeline [Infographic]

• Discipline of Early Learners – Laws, District Policies and Federal Resources

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Reports

• Our Right to Resources: School Districts Are Cheating High-Need Students by Funding Law Enforcement, February 2020

• Empty Desks: Discipline & Policing in Montana's Public Schools, December 2019

• Police and Pennsylvania's Schools: What Education Leaders Need to Know, October 2019

• Building  Inclusive Communities in Delaware's Schools: Fair Discipline Online Toolkit, 2019

• Safe to Learn: An Assessment of School Climate and Discipline in Florida, June 2019

• Cops and No Counselors: How the Lack of School Mental Health Staff Is Harming Students, 2019

• From the Classroom to the Courtroom: A Review of Nebraska's School Police Programs, 2018

• 11 Million Days Lost: Race, Discipline, and Safety at U.S. Public Schools, 2018

• Here to Learn: Creating Safe and Supportive Schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District, 2018

• ACLU Comments on Equity in IDEA Compliance Delay, 2018

• ACLU Comments to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Re: Students of Color with Disabilities and the School-to-Prison Pipeline, 2018

• Schools Choosing Students: How Arizona Charter Schools Engage in Illegal and Exclusionary Student Enrollment Practices, 2017

• ​We Belong Here: Eliminating Inequity in Education for Immigrants and Students of Color in Maine, 2017

• From School to Prison: Missouri's Pipeline of Injustice, data dashboard, 2017

• Students Not Suspects: The Need to Reform School Policing in Washington State, 2017

• Bullies in Blue: The Origins and Consequences of School Policing, 2017

• New Data Show Outsized Police Role and Racial Disparities in School Discipline, 2016

• The Right to Remain a Student: Police in California Schools, 2016

• Beyond Zero Tolerance: Discipline and Policing in Pennsylvania Public Schools, 2015

• The School-to-Prison Pipeline in Black and White, Rhode Island, 015

• For Naught: How Zero Tolerance Policy and School Police Practices Imperil Our Students' Future, Michigan, 2015

• Arrested Futures: The Criminalization of School Discipline, (download the full report), Massachusetts, 2012

• Use of Force in Texas Public Schools, 2011

• Safety with Dignity: Alternatives to Over-Policing of Schools, New York City, 2009 

• Policing in Schools: Developing a Governance Document for School Resource Officers in K-12 Schools,  2009

• Impairing Education: Corporal Punishment of Students with Disabilities in US Public Schools, 2009 

• A Violent Education: Corporal Punishment of Children in U.S. Public Schools, 2008

• Hard Lessons: School Resource Officer Programs and School-Based Arrests in Three Connecticut Towns, 2008

• Dignity Denied: The Effect of "Zero Tolerance" Policies on Students' Human Rights, Connecticut, 2008

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Presentations

• Using Civil Rights Data in Local Work (2018) [Webinar]

• Handcuffs on Success: Why Immigration Enforcement in Schools is Not the Answer

• Preschool to Prison Pipeline: Exclusionary Discipline in Preschool Programs [Powerpoint]

• Discipline and Law Enforcement in the K- 12 Context [Teleconference]

• The Role of Police Officers in Schools [Podcast]

• School to Prison Pipeline:  Overview and Solutions [Webinar]

• Solutions Not Suspensions: This is How We Close the School-to-Prison Pipeline[Video]

• Avoiding Criminalization in School Discipline: Reducing the Reliance on Police [Webinar]

• Civil Rights Data Collection: Using the Data in Local Work (2016) [Webinar]

• Racial Disparities in School Discipline [Podcast]

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ACLU in the News

​2020

• Those “Free” Remote Learning Apps Have A High Cost: Your Student’s Privacy

2019

• 5 Pittsburgh Schools among State’s Highest in Arrests, Citations As Security Debate Continues

• Hawaii Provided ‘Inaccurate’ Data On Student Restraint And Seclusion

• ACLU Calls on Providence School Leaders to Address “Alarming Racial Disparities” in Student Discipline

• Civil Rights Group Sound Alarm over Florida School-Safety Database

• A Former School-Based Police Officer Was Charged With Negligence in Connection With the Parkland Massacre. Experts Call the Move Extremely Rare. But What Are the Broader Implications for School Safety? 

• Lawsuit Says Diversion Program Meant to Keep Troubled Kids Out of the Criminal Justice System Violates Their Constitutional Rights 

• Student Citations at Lancaster County Public Schools Can Have Lasting Consequences

• Schools Need Less Cops, More Counselors, ACLU Says

• ACLU Report: Schools Short-staff Mental Health Services While Over-policing Students

• Trump Administration Recommends Slashing Civil Rights Protections for Students of Color

• Florida Doubles Down on School Policing, Sacrificing Student Safety and Rights

• Isolated at School: Spokane Parents Claim Isolation Rooms Misused at District Schools

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2018

• Students, Parents, and the City Attorney Have Spoken: End Random Searches in L.A. Schools

• Children Cruelly Handcuffed Win Big Settlement Against the Police in Kentucky

• Lawsuit Alleges State Failing Flint Special Education Kids

• Pittsburgh School Board Votes Against Arming District Police

• Pittsburgh Public Schools Police Chief Laments Board Decision Not to Arm School Officers

• Amid Post-Parkland Calls for School-Based Police, $500,000 Settlement Gives Critics Reason for Caution

• How Likely is Pittsburgh to Arm its School Officers?

• Pittsburgh Public Schools Consider Arming School Police

• Board Members Raise Concerns as Pittsburgh Public Schools Police Ask for Guns

• Some Schools Need a Lesson on Students’ Free Speech Rights

• School Safety and Civil Rights in Pennsylvania [Podcast]

• Criminalizing Schoolkids [Podcast]

• Here's What Happens When We Allow Facial Recognition Technology in Our Schools

• Elementary School Kids Don't Belong in Handcuffs

• Measuring the Impact of School Pushout​

• ACLU Sues Flint Police for Handcuffing Seven-Year-Old Boy with Disabilities​

• Missouri Public Schools Continue to Unequally Discipline Students

• Advocates Gratified by SRC’s Extension of Ban on Suspensions for Young Students

• Students Transferred to Alternative Schools Have a Right to Due Process

• Local Police Chief's Idea for School Safety​

• School Policing: What the Research Shows

• Arming Teachers and Putting More Armed Cops on Campus Jeopardizes Safety

• The Trump Administration Is Using the Parkland Massacre as an Excuse to Roll Back Civil Rights​

• More Cops Won’t Make Schools Safer, But Here’s What They Will Do

• From School Suspension to Immigration Detention

• Student Walkout Over Guns Poses Balancing Act for Schools

• Can Schools Discipline Students for Protesting

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2017

• Undocumented Suspensions Persisted in D.C. Schools Despite Repeated Alerts

• Police Assault on Black Students in Kentucky Sparks Calls for Reform​

• Staunching the School-to-Prison Pipeline

• ‘Excessive force’: Judge Rules in Favor of Children Who Were Handcuffed at School

• Trump Order Could Give Immigration Agents a Foothold in US Schools  

• Report: Phoenix-area Schools Punish Minority, Disabled Children at Higher Rates

• ACLU, Advocacy Groups Demand School Officials Investigate Suspension Practices (D.C)

• Civil Rights Data Advocacy at the State Level

• School Discipline Bill to Make Appearance in Next Year's Legislative Session (Delaware)

• Local Advocates Brace for Changes in Federal Education Civil Rights Policy

• Students' Rights on the Internet and Social Media​

• A Breakthrough in Discipline Reform for Early Learners (Maryland)

• ACLU Releases New Data on Stockton Unified’s Pattern of Wrongly Arresting Students

• Pittsburgh Parents Demand Change to Stop School Pushout

• Why Restorative Justice? 

• Becoming a Civil Rights Data Advocate 

• ACLU Handbook Informs Students of their Right

• Does Exposure to Teachers of the Same Race Affect Discipline

• Why School Policing Reform Matters

• Youth Advocacy Group Pushes for A Complaint System About School Police Officers

• PA Guidelines for School Discipline May Change 

• ACLU of Washington Files Lawsuit on Behalf of Special-Education Students

• ACLU Sues Washington Superintendent for Wrongful Discipline of Students with Disabilities

• Why Is It So Hard to Stop Suspending Kindergartners?

• City School Safety Data Shows Handcuffs Used Disproportionately on Black and Latino Children

• Who is Holding Districts and Police Departments Accountable?

• Don't Arm School Police

• Police Arresting far Fewer Students after Spokane (Washington) Schools Change Discipline Polices

• Student Arrests in Pennsylvania: A Closer Look

• Policing Our Schools: Uneven Rates of Discipline in our Region

• Kids in Cuffs: Is Security in Schools Going Too Far? (story, and data portal)

• She Recorded Her Classmate's Arrest, Then Got Arrested, Too (ACLU client interview)

• Outrage Over Video Showing Cop Body-Slamming Teen Girl

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2016

• Pennsylvania Commission Releases Informative Study of School Discipline​

• Nevada ACLU ‘Deeply Concerned’ over Shooting of Reno High School Student

• When California Schools Call Cops for Small Infractions it Disproportionately Hurts Minority Students, Civil Rights Study Finds​

• There are Ways to End the School-to-Prison Pipeline. Child Advocates offer Solutions in Pittsburgh​

• How America Outlawed Adolescence. At Least 22 States Make it a Crime to Disturb School in Ways that Teenagers are Wired to Do. Why Did this Happen?

• It is Time to Get Real About School Policing

• Black Caucus to Back Ban on Suspending Youngest Students

• Over 100 Education Groups Want To Kick Cops Out Of Schools

• What's Wrong With Criminalizing Our Early Learners?

• ACLU Sues Kansas City Public Schools For Handcuffing A Crying 7-Year-Old

• Harrisburg Mayor is on the Wrong Side of Cops in the Classroom 

• Philly Will No Longer Suspend Kindergarten Students

• SRC Bans Suspension of Kindergartners and Students who Violate Dress Code

• ACLU: Over-Policing in Stockton Unified Remains Rampant, with 3,000 Police “Incident Reports” Each Year

• Policing School Police: Officers in the Schools Undermine Public Trust as Much as Those on the Street

• School Police Officer’s Attack on Baltimore Teen Raises Questions about Cops on Campus

• South Carolina Law on Disrupting School Faces Legal Challenge

• Law Limits School Suspensions for Minor Infractions

• Addressing Racial Bias and ‘School-to-Prison Pipeline’

• Keeping Misbehaving Students off the Streets, but not off the Hook

• Schools Innovate Around Behavior as Suspensions Fall into Disfavor

• Police in Schools: Arresting Developments

2015

• Body Cameras on School Police Spark Student Privacy Concerns​

• Lawsuit: Kenton County Deputy Sheriff Shackled two Elementary Students who Had Disabilities, also learn more about the case here and watch a video

• The Role of Police Officers in Schools [Podcast]

• 'Good Guys' with Guns: How Police Officers became Fixtures in US Schools

• As Awareness of the School-to-Prison Pipeline Rises, Some Schools Rethink the Role of Police

2014

• Can We Fix the Race Problem in America's School Discipline? 

2013

• ACLU Report Finds Disparities in Discipline for Minority, Disabled Students

• Pa. Study Asks: Has 'Zero Tolerance' Gone Too Far?

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