New law part of effort to block school-to-prison pipeline

National statistics show Indiana is the wrong kind of leader in school discipline.

The Hoosier state has the second highest rate of out-of-school suspensions for African-American males and is tied for the fourth highest rate of out-of-school suspensions for African-American females, according a 2014 survey done by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.

Suspensions and expulsions are being used on minority and special-needs students at disproportionally higher rates compared to their white classmates in Indiana schools. Defiance and attendance are among the primary reasons children are being removed from the classroom.

Students repeatedly subjected to harsh disciplinary practices are at an increased risk for dropping out of school and entering the criminal justice system.

Experts say the solution for Indiana is data. Schools collecting more disaggregated data on their students, the offenses and on the use of discipline will spotlight unknown trends and point the way to better practices and better outcomes.

“Within a district, data could tell you which schools are having the problem and then, if it breaks it down by grade level, race, gender and age, you have a lot more information to go on to help come up with a solution to address it,” said JauNae Hanger, president of the Children’s Policy and Law Initiative of Indiana.

CPLI was part of the effort that got key legislation regarding data collection passed during the 2015 session of the Indiana General Assembly.

House Enrolled Act 1635, authored by Rep. Robert Behning, R-Indianapolis, requires schools to report more specific information on students who are suspended and expelled. The numbers will have to be broken down by race, grade, gender, free or reduced lunch status, and eligibility for special education.

In addition, the legislation provides grants which schools can use for professional development to teach alternatives to suspension and expulsions and introduce evidence-based practices that contribute to a positive school environment.

However, as Russell Skiba, director of the Equity Project at Indiana University pointed out, collecting the data is one step.

“The biggest problem that we always have is not just availability of the data but actually using the data to make sure it is not just a meaningless form that schools send to the Department of Education once a year, but that they take a look at that data,” he said.

National problem

Indiana is not alone. School systems across the country are rethinking the use of strict measures toward children. The National Education Association has come out against zero-tolerance policies and, in September, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan called for an end to treating children as criminals.

The examination of school discipline is tied to the reforms taking root in the criminal justice system. People across the political spectrum, looking at the number of inmates in state prisons and the fiscal implications, are calling for change.

Particularly in juvenile justice, the criminalization of children, even for low-level offenses, can have long-term consequences, Hanger said. Juvenile arrest records are not always confidential or disposed of when minors reach 18 years of age. Instead, that record can hinder them when they apply for employment or try to enroll in college or enlist in the military.

“So from a child’s perspective, we’re putting up barriers to them succeeding,” Hanger said.

CPLI held a summit Oct. 6 in Indianapolis to identify how Indiana schools can implement best practices and positive discipline so students are not suspended, expelled or sent to court. The daylong discussion included educators, principals and officials from the Indiana Department of Child Services along with a group from the legal community that included Delaware Circuit Judge Kimberly Dowling.

One of the keynote speakers was Indiana native Matthew Cregor, a staff attorney with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Economic Justice in Boston. He sprinkled his presentation with stories of students who were arrested for such acts as writing “I love my friends” on a school desk.

Cregor also pointed to data as a way to see what is happening in the schools. In order for that data to be responsive to the problems, he said, teachers have to be the ones looking at the numbers and figuring out the trends.

“My prayer is that as a state, we say these are all our children and that to give them the opportunities they’re going to need to succeed in life, we’ve got to figure out how to keep them all in school,” Cregor said.

Collecting and reporting

In the original version of the bill that would become HEA 1635, schools were prohibited from suspending and expelling students for attendance-related matters. The Indiana Association of School Principals opposed that and got that provision removed.

Todd Bess, executive director of the association, acknowledged sending a child out of the classroom may not be a best practice, but he said principals need the ability to impose such a punishment. Removing a disruptive student can preserve the learning environment for the other pupils and, in some instances, can change behavior.

While principals want the suspension-expulsion tool, they understand keeping students in school is critical to their education, he said. The principals want resources and practices they can implement that will be more effective in modifying student problem behavior.

Bess sees data as a key part because the numbers can help inform principals about all areas of the school operation. A critical component to the collection will be ensuring all the stats are broken down the same way so all the reports have the same level of detail.

An earlier version of HEA 1635 called for the creation of an 11-member workgroup charged with collecting and analyzing the data from the schools. The members would have been appointed by the Indiana Department of Education and the Commission on Improving the Status of Children.

That provision did not make it into the final draft and it is unclear who will do that job. It is possible the Commission on Improving the Status of Children’s Education Task Force will take on those duties.

Alyson Clements, state strategist for the National Juvenile Justice Network, noted a mandate to collect data has to be accompanied by resources, training and software. These are necessary to compile and analyze the numbers while still maintaining confidentially for the students.

CPLI plans to continue pushing for reform. The group is scheduled to issue a report from its recent summit with recommendations that can be shared with legislators and other policymakers.

Hanger said CPLI is encouraged by HEA 1635.

“It was a good bill from our perspective,” she said. “We think it’s just a step in the right direction to get us to where we ultimately want to end.”•