Sheila
Moderator
I'm not proud to be a Texan today.
There's tons more info on this issue and Zero Tolerance Policies from the url.
"...Special education students are significantly overrepresented in discretionary disciplinary referrals compared to their percentage in the overall school population."
BREAKING THE SCHOOL TO PRISON PIPELINE
"...In January, Texas Appleseed worked in collaboration with Advocacy, Inc. and the Texas Public Policy Foundation to produce Keeping Schools Safe While Reducing Dropouts: Breaking the School-to-Prison Pipleline, a brief aimed at improving school discipline policies in the state of Texas. A quick glance at the sobering statistics presented in this report surrounding youth and Texas schools' overuse of Disciplinary Alternative Education Programs (DAEPs) quickly dissolves any question one may have of why interest in the School-to-Prison Pipeline is so high amongst legislators. A study conducted in conjunction with eight school districts in the state of Texas, five refusing to participate, revealed that:
* Over 100,000 students per year are sent to DAEPs;
* Nearly 600 Pre-K and Kindergarten, as well as over 3,000 First Grade students have been sent to DAEPs over the past five years; and
*Children in DAEPs have five times the dropout rate of mainstream disciplinary programs.
The high dropout rates associated with these Disciplinary Alternative Education Programs strongly correlate with entry of youths and adults into the criminal justice system, producing a school-to-prison pipeline. According to the policy brief, 31% of youths were dropouts before entering the Texas Youth Commission and more than 80% of Texas prison inmates are dropouts. Furthermore, most of the students that have been referred to DAEPs over the course of five school years from 2000 - 2006 have committed nonviolent offenses and are disproportionately African-American, Latino and Special Education students - making DAEPs virtual dumping grounds for students whom teachers deem undesirable.
Statistics clearly show that not only do DAEPs, as they are presently administrated, fail to make mainstream schools safer places for Texas youth to learn, but they also open gateways to even greater social issues at the state level." [emphasis added]
There's tons more info on this issue and Zero Tolerance Policies from the url.
"...Special education students are significantly overrepresented in discretionary disciplinary referrals compared to their percentage in the overall school population."
BREAKING THE SCHOOL TO PRISON PIPELINE
"...In January, Texas Appleseed worked in collaboration with Advocacy, Inc. and the Texas Public Policy Foundation to produce Keeping Schools Safe While Reducing Dropouts: Breaking the School-to-Prison Pipleline, a brief aimed at improving school discipline policies in the state of Texas. A quick glance at the sobering statistics presented in this report surrounding youth and Texas schools' overuse of Disciplinary Alternative Education Programs (DAEPs) quickly dissolves any question one may have of why interest in the School-to-Prison Pipeline is so high amongst legislators. A study conducted in conjunction with eight school districts in the state of Texas, five refusing to participate, revealed that:
* Over 100,000 students per year are sent to DAEPs;
* Nearly 600 Pre-K and Kindergarten, as well as over 3,000 First Grade students have been sent to DAEPs over the past five years; and
*Children in DAEPs have five times the dropout rate of mainstream disciplinary programs.
The high dropout rates associated with these Disciplinary Alternative Education Programs strongly correlate with entry of youths and adults into the criminal justice system, producing a school-to-prison pipeline. According to the policy brief, 31% of youths were dropouts before entering the Texas Youth Commission and more than 80% of Texas prison inmates are dropouts. Furthermore, most of the students that have been referred to DAEPs over the course of five school years from 2000 - 2006 have committed nonviolent offenses and are disproportionately African-American, Latino and Special Education students - making DAEPs virtual dumping grounds for students whom teachers deem undesirable.
Statistics clearly show that not only do DAEPs, as they are presently administrated, fail to make mainstream schools safer places for Texas youth to learn, but they also open gateways to even greater social issues at the state level." [emphasis added]
