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CCE Testifies at DC Council Judiciary and Education Committees

The DC Council Judiciary Committee held its oversight committee hearing on correctional issues on February 19th. CCE provided testimony before the committee that drew from information gathered in the process of developing recommendations for the Mayor’s transition team. Our recommendations included an increase in the capacity of the Office of Returning Citizen Affairs to meet the needs of people returning to the community from incarceration; support for the Correctional Information Council’s work to provide oversight of Bureau of Prisons facilities that house over 5,000 District residents; and a holistic review of the correctional system, with an emphasis on the impact of the current bifurcated local-federal system, as well as the existing detention center’s ability to meet its 21st century mandate to provide rehabilitation services that facilitate reentry.
 
The DC Council Committee on Education held a hearing on February 4th on the Pre-K Student Discipline Amendment Act of 2015 and Student Discipline Practices and Procedures in Public Schools.  CCE testified about the bill’s reporting requirements for local education agency suspension and expulsion data and presented preliminary findings and recommendations about student discipline practices and procedures from its forthcoming report, “Equity in School Discipline: An Examination of School Disciplinary Policies and Practices in the District of Columbia Public Education System and Recommendations for Reform.”  The findings and recommendations highlighted the need for District-wide standards for school discipline; adherence to due process requirements for all students; an impartial hearing officer to hear student discipline cases on appeal and the role of the Office of the Administrative Hearings in adjudicating student discipline cases from DC Public Schools; and an alternative education setting for charter schools and ensuring remote participation in academic coursework while a student waits out his or her suspension.
 
 
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