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Educate a ChildEducate a Child

Disrupting the Pipeline Disrupting the Pipeline to Prisonto Prison

Simulation: School to Simulation: School to Prison PipelinePrison Pipeline

DebriefDebrief

Educate a Child, Educate a Child, Transform the WorldTransform the World

• National – pcusa.org/child• Direct Service – in your community• Advocacy – local, state, national• Pentecost Offering – 40% stays with

congregation for local action

• Global – pcusa.org/globalpoverty• Money to Support mission co-workers and

education projects abroad

““If any of you put a stumbling block If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little onesbefore one of these little ones…it…it would be better for you to have a would be better for you to have a millstone hung about your neckmillstone hung about your neck……and drowned in the heart of the and drowned in the heart of the

sea.” -Jesussea.” -Jesus

Matthew Matthew 18:618:6

Disrupting the Pipeline on Disrupting the Pipeline on the Groundthe Ground

“He who opens a school door, closes a prison.” Victor Hugo “The streets were not my only problem. If the streets shackled my right leg, the schools shackled my left. Fail to comprehend the streets and you gave up your body now. But fail to comprehend the schools and you gave up your body later. I suffered at the hands of both, but I resent the schools more.” Ta-Nehisi Coates

What is the School to What is the School to Prison Pipeline?Prison Pipeline?

• Operating directly and indirectly, the School-to-Prison Pipeline (also known as “Cradle-to-Prison,” or “push out”) is a nationwide system of local, state and federal education and public safety policies that pushes students out of school and into the criminal justice system. This system disproportionately targets youth of color and youth with disabilities.

• With its roots in deep economic and social inequalities the school-to-prison pipeline is operative in areas such as school discipline, policing practices, high-stakes testing and the continuous rise of the prison industry contributes to it.

http://www.nyclu.org/issues/youth-and-student-rights/school-prison-pipeline

Zero Tolerance Zero Tolerance Policies/Exclusionary Policies/Exclusionary

PunishmentPunishment• Involves the police in minor incidents and often lead to arrests,

juvenile detention referrals, and even criminal charges and incarceration.

• Schools are suspending and expelling students at a rate more than double that of 1974. In 2006, more than 3.3 million students were suspended out-of-school at least once and 102,000 were expelled.

• Some school districts use police officers or “school resource officers” not trained for educational environments to patrol school campuses and discipline students.

• Between 2002 and 2006, out of school suspensions increased by 250,000 and expulsions by 15 percent.

From Dignity in Schools’ Fact Sheet on School Pushout

Race, Poverty, and the Race, Poverty, and the PipelinePipeline

• Students of color face harsher discipline in school and are more likely to be pushed out of school than whites

• 40% of students expelled each year from U.S. schools are African American.

• 70% of students involved in “in school” arrests or referred to law enforcement are Black and Latino.

• Black students are 3.5 times more likely to be suspended than their white counterparts, and Black and Latino students are twice as likely to not graduate from school as whites.

• A child who has been suspended is more likely to fall behind in school, be retained a grade, drop out of high school, commit a crime, and become incarcerated as an adult.

• By virtue of their zip codes, children start school on uneven footing even as early as kindergarten, which makes catching up difficult.

All figures from the Community Coalition

New York City New York City Student Safety Act Reporting on Arrests and Student Safety Act Reporting on Arrests and

SummonsesSummonsesJuly 1, 2014 – June 30, 2015July 1, 2014 – June 30, 2015

GENERAL DATAGENERAL DATAThere were 775 arrests and summonses – almost 4 per day – during the four quarters of the 2014 – 2015 school year. Including summer school, there were 210 high school days and 206 middle school days

during this 12-month period. • Male - 52% • Black – 29% • Latino – 40% • White –14% • Asian – 16% • Am. Indian 1%

• Brooklyn – 29%

• Queens - 28% • Bronx - 21% • Manhattan - 15% • Staten Island - 6%

Disrupting the Pipeline in Disrupting the Pipeline in the Halls of Powerthe Halls of Power

Local AdvocacyLocal AdvocacyTactics: •Provide testimony at city council and school board meetings •Write letters to the editor •Circulate petitions •Build alliances with like minded groups 

Dignity in Schools NYDignity in Schools NY

• Develops policy recommendations and organizes testimony before the Department of Education to change New York City's school discipline policies, and holds workshops and teach-ins to engage students, parents and educators in our work.

• Pushed for the inclusion of $2.4M in the FY2016 City Budget for the implementation of restorative justice practices in schools

 

State AdvocacyState AdvocacyTactics: •Provide testimony at state legislative hearings•Write letters to the editor •Circulate petitions •Build alliances with like minded groups•Hold protests and sit-ins to raise profile of their work 

Padres y Jovenes UnidosPadres y Jovenes UnidosIn 2012, Padres & Jóvenes Unidos, allied stakeholders and policy makers worked to pass SB 46 (HB 1345), dubbed the Smart School Discipline Law (SSDL).

•Requires schools to implement prevention strategies, restorative justice, peer mediation, counseling, and other approaches to minimize student exposure to juvenile and criminal justice systems.

•Substantial improvement in data collection around school-based arrests, tickets, and court referrals.

•Prioritizes appropriate training of school-based police officers on appropriate discipline with students of color, LGBT students and students with disabilities.

•Since implementation, out of school suspension rate down 17%, expulsion rate down 36%, referral to law enforcement down 23%.

Federal AdvocacyFederal Advocacy• The Every Student Succeeds Act didn’t just replace

the No Child Left Behind law, it encourages school districts to take a closer look at their discipline practices.

• Requires school districts to show how they are taking steps to curb discipline practices that remove students from the classroom.

• Mandates that a district’s discipline policy should be part of a “long-term goal of prison reduction through opportunities, mentoring, intervention, support and other education services”  

The Childhood Nutrition The Childhood Nutrition Reauthorization Act (CNR)Reauthorization Act (CNR)

Congress needs to reauthorize the child nutrition bill that provides free and reduced school lunches, snacks,

and which funds the Farm to School program

What YOU can do:1.Send an Action Alert to your representatives in Congress [go to capwiz.com/pcusa]2.Have your congregation sign onto organizational sign-on letter to Congress for the Farm to School Act. [go to bit.ly/org-sign]3.You as an Individual can add your name to the citizen sign-on letter. [go to bit.ly/pcusa-cnr]

Alphabet Brainstorming Alphabet Brainstorming ExerciseExercise

The Educate A Child The Educate A Child ToolkitToolkit

Available online and for free Available online and for free download at: download at: http://www.presbyterianmission.org/ministries/child/toolkit/

Third Presbyterian Third Presbyterian Rochester – Great Rochester – Great

Schools for AllSchools for All