The School-to-Prison Pipeline: Structuring Legal ReformThe "school-to-prison pipeline" is an emerging trend that pushes large numbers of at-risk youth - particularly children of colour - out of classrooms and into the juvenile justice system. The policies and practices that contribute to this trend can be seen as a pipeline with many entry points, from under-resourced public schools, to the over-use of zero-tolerance suspensions and expulsions and to the explosion of policing and arrests in public schools. The confluence of these practices threatens to prepare an entire generation of children for a future of incarceration. In this comprehensive study of the relationship between American law and the school-to-prison pipeline, co-authors Catherine Y. Kim, Daniel J. Losen, and Damon T. Hewitt - all civil rights attorneys specializing in juvenile justice - analyze the current state of the law for each entry point on the pipeline and propose legal theories and remedies to challenge them. Using specific state-based examples and case studies, the authors assert that law can be an effective weapon in the struggle to reduce the number of children caught in the pipeline, address the devastating consequences of the pipeline on families and communities, and ensure that our public schools and juvenile justice system further the goals for which they were created: to provide meaningful, safe opportunities for all the nation's children. |
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ACLU administrative adult advocates African American alleged alternative education Amendment behavior Center challenge chapter child Civil Rights claims complaint conduct constitutional County criminal Delinquency detention discrimination discussed disparate impact disproportionate disruption Dist educa educational services enrolled ensure equal protection Equal Protection Clause expelled students facilities federal filed funding homeless IDEA impact litigation implementation incarcerated individual jurisdictions juvenile justice system law enforcement lawsuit Losen McKinney-Vento McKinney-Vento Act National percent placement plaintiffs policies procedural due process prohibiting public school punishment pursuant racial disparities referrals regulations remedies requirements right to education school discipline School District school officials school resource officers school-based arrests School-to-Prison Pipeline schools and programs Section 504 special education standard state’s statute strict scrutiny students with disabilities substantive due process Supp supra note Supreme Court teachers tion U.S. Department violated York Immigration Coalition youth Zero Tolerance