Students with disabilities have long been disciplined, expelled, or otherwise removed from learning environments at higher rates than other populations. Unfortunately, No Child Left Behind (NCLB) also known as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) has exacerbated this problem, with its laser like focus on testing and test preparation. A discussion about the problem and what must be done to solve it is the focus of a new report -- Federal Policy, ESEA and the School to Prison Pipeline -- endorsed by CEC and its division Council for Children with Behavioral Disorders (CCBD).
The report points out that NCLB/ESEA directly encourage the use of zero-tolerance school discipline policies and the referral of students to law enforcement for disciplinary infractions. The result has been the over-criminalization of students across the country.
The report also describes the reauthorization of the ESEA as an important opportunity to begin dismantling the School-to-Prison Pipeline, and makes a number of recommendations to Congress:
- Create a stronger, more effective school and student assessment and accountability system capable of recognizing multiple forms of success and offering useful information for school improvement.
- Provide funding and incentives aimed at improving school climate, reducing the use of exclusionary discipline, and limiting the flow of students from schools to the juvenile and criminal justice systems.
- Facilitate the re-enrollment, re-entry, and proper education of students returning to school from expulsion and juvenile justice system placements.
View the position paper and list of endorsements here. View all of CEC’s NCLB/ESEA reauthorization recommendations here.
How can we provide support for the children that need substantial behavior support when the funding is not there? We now see in the elementary schools kids with knives and other behaviors we used to only see in the high schools.
Posted by: Kate Shannon | 04/06/2011 at 10:47 PM