COMBATING THE SCHOOL-TO-PRISON PIPELINE
School-to-Prison Pipeline 101
Resources that provide a broad overview of school-to-prison pipeline issues, plus implicit bias, corporal punishment, disciplinary programs, and discipline practices in charter schools
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Policing and Racial Injustice: A Disability Rights Perspective - Impacts and Solutions, Disability Rights Ohio, November 2020
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A Battle for the Souls of Black Girls, New York Times, October 1, 2020
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Student Arrest Records A ‘Disturbing Mess’ At Illinois School Districts, Illinois Newsroom, September 29, 2020
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Research on the Impact of School Policing, text and PDF, ACLU of PA, July 31, 2020
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Why Won't Society Let Black Girls Be Children?, NYT Parenting, January 28, 2020
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More Than 30,000 Children Under Age 10 Have Been Arrested in the US Since 2013: FBI, ABC News, October 1, 2019
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The Haunting Reality of Discrimination in School Discipline, Education Week, July 29, 2019
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Throwing Children Away: The School-to-Prison Pipeline, The American Conservative, August 13, 2018
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Disproportionality in Student Discipline: Connecting Policy to Research, Brookings, January 18, 2018
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Realizing the Full Vision of School Discipline Reform: A Framework for Statewide Change, Council of State Governments Justice Center, September 2017
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5 Questions Families Should Ask About School Discipline, Child Trends, September 2017
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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?, The Atlantic, November 2016
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The School to Prison Pipeline, Explained, Justice Policy Institute, February 24, 2015
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A Generation Later: What We’ve Learned about Zero Tolerance, Vera Institute of Justice, December 2013
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Exclusionary School Discipline: An Issue Brief and Review of the Literature, Earl Warren Institute on Law and Social Policy, April 2013
Fact Sheets
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Discipline Disparities: Myths and Facts, 2014, The Equity Project at Indiana University
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What is School Pushout?, Dignity in Schools Campaign
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Locating the School-to-Prison Pipeline, American Civil Liberties Union
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Discipline of Early Learners: Laws and Policies, 2019, ACLU of PA
Implicit Bias
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Student Surveillance, Racial Inequalities, and Implicit Racial Bias, University of Florida College of Law, April 2017
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Online Implicit Bias Module for K-12 Educators, Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race & Ethnicity, Ohio State University, August 29, 2018
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Locked Out of the Classroom: How Implicit Bias Contributes to Disparities in School Discipline, NAACPLDF, November 2017
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Do Early Educators’ Implicit Biases Regarding Sex and Race Relate to Behavior Expectations and Recommendations of Preschool Expulsions and Suspensions?, A Research Study Brief, Yale Child Study Center, September 28, 2016
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Implicit Racial Bias and School Discipline Disparities: Exploring the Connection, Kirwan Institute at The Ohio State University, May 2014
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Racial Disproportionality in School Discipline: Implicit Bias is Heavily Implicated, Kirwan Institute at The Ohio University, February 2014
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Find more resources on teacher-student interactions here
Corporal Punishment
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Kids Keep Getting Hit at School, Even Where Corporal Punishment is Banned, The74million.org, May 19, 2021
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Ending Corporal Punishment of Preschool-age Children, The Brookings Institution, October 13, 2020
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Corporal Punishment in North Carolina Schools: A Structural Racism Success Story That’s Not Yet Complete, North Carolina Policy Watch, June 23, 2020
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The Striking Outlier: The Persistent, Painful, and Problematic Practice of Corporal Punishment in Schools, The Center for Civil Rights Remedies and The Southern Poverty Law Center, June 2019
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Though Some Legislators Say Spanking Has Its Place, North Carolina House Votes to Ban Corporal Punishment in Schools, The News and Observer, March 27, 2019
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Special Report: Spare the Rod, Spoil the Child? Corporal Punishment in Mississippi Schools, WJTV12 (Jackson, MS), February 20, 2019
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Effective Discipline to Raise Healthy Children, American Academy of Pediatrics policy statement, Pediatrics, February 1, 2019
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American Academy of Pediatrics Policy Opposes Corporal Punishment, Draws on Recent Evidence, November 5, 2018
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What Happens When A Country Bans Spanking?, National Public Radio, October 25, 2018
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Corporal Punishment Bans and Physical Fighting in Adolescents, BMJ Open, October 16, 2018
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Nearly 100,000 K-12 Students Still Spanked or Paddled at School, Data Show, Education Week, May 14, 2018
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Corporal Punishment and Preschoolers: What New Federal Data Show, Education Week, May 11, 2018
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Mississippi School District Votes to Ban Corporal Punishment, Bucking Statewide Trend, Think Progress, January 29, 2018
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Corporal Punishment Removed from Local Policy, Midland Reporter-Telegram, November 13, 2017
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Should Teachers Use Corporal Punishment On Students?, HBO/Vice News, October 9, 2017
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Letter from the U.S. Secretary of Education to Governors and Chief State School Officers Calling for An End to Corporal Punishment in Schools, November 22, 2016
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Corporal Punishment Use Found in Schools in 21 States, Education Week, August 23, 2016
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Assessing Whether Corporal Punishment Helps Students or Hurts Them, PBS Newshour, August 23, 2016
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Schools, Black Children, and Corporal Punishment, Brookings, January 14, 2016
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Where Teachers Are Still Allowed to Spank Students: Corporal Punishment is Legal in 19 States, The Atlantic, December 14, 2015
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19 States Still Allow Corporal Punishment in School, Washington Post, Sept 18, 2014
Alternative Disciplinary Schools and Programs
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Lawsuit Says Diversion Program Meant to Keep Troubled Kids Out of the Criminal Justice System Violates Their Constitutional Rights, ABA Journal, May 1, 2019
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Schooling at Risk, Iowa Law Review, 2018
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For-Profit School Chain Camelot Suffers Setback Following Abuse Allegations, ProPublica, April 12, 2017
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ACLU of Florida to Public School Districts: Students Transferred to Alternative Schools Have a Right to Due Process, ACLU of Florida, March 23, 2018
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Hard Lessons: Putting Troubled Kids in Strict Environments is Big Business for Camelot Education, BuzzFeed News, March 22, 2017
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“That Place Was Like a Prison,” Camelot Education Takes the Students Public Schools Have Given Up On. But the For-profit Company’s Approach to Discipline has Led to Allegations of Aggression and Abuse, Slate, March 8, 2017
Charter Schools and Discipline
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To Fix School-to-Prison Pipeline, Start with Charter Institutions, USA Today, March 16, 2018
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Key Trends in Special Education in Charter Schools, National Center for Special Education in Charter Schools, February 2018
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"Dear Colleague" Letter on the Rights of Students with Disabilities in Public Charter Schools under Section 504 and IDEA, US Department of Education, December 28, 2016
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Charter Schools, Civil Rights, and School Discipline, The Center for Civil Rights Remedies at the Civil Rights Project, March 2016
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Dear Colleague Letter from Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Education – Charter Schools, May 14, 2014 [Note: Rescinded by the Trump Administration]
Major Studies
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Disabling Inequity: The Urgent Need for Race-Conscious Resource Remedies, Center for Civil Rights Remedies at the Civil Rights Project at UCLA, March 2021
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Lost Opportunities: How Disparate School Discipline Continues to Drive Differences in the Opportunity to Learn, summary and full report, Center for Civil Rights Remedies at the Civil Rights Project at UCLA and the Learning Policy Institute, October 2020
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Unpacking the Drivers of Racial Disparities in School Suspension and Expulsion, podcast and research report, September 2019
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Beyond Suspensions: Examining School Discipline Policies and Connections to the School-to-Prison Pipeline for Students of Color with Disabilities, US Commission on Civil Rights, July 2019
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Cops and No Counselors: How the Lack of School Mental Health Staff Is Harming Students, American Civil Liberties Union, 2019
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11 Million Days Lost: Race, Discipline, and Safety at U.S. Public Schools, Civil Rights Project at UCLA and the ACLU of Southern California, August 2018
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Estimating the Effect of State Zero Tolerance Laws on Exclusionary Discipline, Racial Discipline Gaps, and Student Behavior, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, American Educational Research Association, 2016
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American Bar Association Joint Task Force on Reversing the School-to-Prison Pipeline Preliminary Report, February 2016
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School Discipline Consensus Report: Strategies from the Field to Keep Students Engaged in School and Out of the Juvenile Justice System, The Council of State Governments Justice Center, 2014
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Breaking Schools' Rules: A Statewide Study of How School Discipline Relates to Students’ Success and Juvenile Justice Involvement, Council of State Governments Justice Center and the Public Policy Research Institute at Texas A&M University, July 2011
Podcasts and Videos
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Implicit Racial Bias in School Discipline [Video and Resources], Kirwan Institute at The Ohio State University
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School Discipline: Issues of Equity and Effectiveness, American Educational Research Association, April 24, 2017
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How Do We Fix the School-to-Prison Pipeline? [Podcast], American Bar Association, August 4, 2014. Overview of the school-to-prison pipeline and what can be done to improve school practices
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Solutions Not Suspensions: This is How We Close the School-to-Prison Pipeline [Video], Netroots Nation, July 18, 2014
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The Life of the Law: School Discipline [Podcast], January 28, 2014
Webinars, Presentations, and Infographics
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Mapping the School to Prison/Immigrant Detention Pipeline [Presentation], Forward Change Consulting, August 7, 2018
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US Education in 2017 in 10 Charts, December 2017, EdWeek
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School to Prison Pipeline: An Overview of the Issues and Potential Solutions for Reform, Coalition for Juvenile Justice, October 30, 2013