ACLU report documents disproportionate disciplinary practices towards African American students, offers realistic recommendations to combat problem

The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan has released a comprehensive report entitled “Reclaiming Michigan’s Throwaway Kids: Students Trapped in the School-to-Prison Pipeline,” which documents a trend amongst school districts to enforce severe disciplinary policies and practices that push children permanently out of the classroom without regard for the long-term impact. The school-to-prison pipeline refers to the national trend of criminalizing, rather than educating, our children.

“This report provides critical information for all those committed to improving our public schools in the state – it documents and analyzes data that shows how the frequent use of suspensions and expulsions contributes to our high drop-out rate and how those suspension practices hit black students the hardest, putting them on a high-risk path to incarceration,” said Kary L. Moss, ACLU of Michigan’s executive director. “We cannot deal with the corrections budget until we deal with the ‘pipeline’ leading from the educational system to prison.”

Information within the report was obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests to school districts across the state, interviews with students, parents, and educators; information obtained while providing advocacy work to students facing discipline; scholarly reports and studies; legal analyses; and information collected while providing aggrieved students with legal representation.

Fast facts:

• In the Ann Arbor School District during the 2006/07 school year, black students accounted for 18 percent of a secondary school student population, but they received 58 percent of suspensions. This trend is reflected in school districts statewide.
• In at least one study of the Grand Rapids School District, 31 percent of students with three or more suspensions before spring semester of their sophomore year dropped out, while only 6 percent of students with no history of suspensions dropped out.
• Sixty-eight percent of Michigan’s prisoners are identified as high school dropouts.
• Michigan’s “zero tolerance” expulsion law, which is broader in scope than federal law requires, also contributes to the school-to-prison pipeline.

To download a copy of “Reclaiming Michigan’s Throwaway Kids: Students Trapped in the School-to-Prison Pipeline,” click here.

To dowload a supplemental appendix of data that is not featured in the report, click here.