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CCE attends national conferences with relevance to on-going school discipline project

CCE attended two national conferences last month that have direct ties to its Children in the Courts Committee project on school disciplinary policies.

Committee Chair Judge Arabella Teal and CCE Policy Analyst Hillary Evans participated in the Closing the School Discipline Gap conference, sponsored by UCLA’s Civil Rights Project, Education Week, Gallup and the Equity Project. Among the themes of this national gathering were out of school suspensions do not work and huge racial disparities exist for suspension and expulsion rates for black and Latino youth which have negative consequences, such as falling behind academically and getting caught up in the criminal justice system.

Hillary Evans (pictured at right) also attended a conference on Positive Outcomes for At-Risk Children and Youth, hosted by the Georgetown Public Policy Institute, focused on how school safety, gun violence and mental health – since the Newtown tragedy -- have become the principal focus areas in protecting the nation’s school children, and that this new focus could change current school discipline policies for better or for worse.

These and other issues will be covered in CCE’s School Discipline Project, currently underway, that is analyzing both the content and the operation of DC’s public and charter school discipline codes. The project will identify how CCE can best contribute to policies and practices that will keep students in school until they receive a diploma and a better chance at a productive life. The research results will be published by the end of 2013.

 
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