| NEWS & UPDATES |
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Greetings, Member Group Spotlight 
POWER-PAC, a Chicago, IL-based parent-led organization, recently released "Parent to Parent Restorative Justice Guide" (available in English and Spanish), a "how-to" guide for parents and education advocates interested in introducing restorative justice practices in schools to help end the school-to-prison pipeline.POWER-PAC is a cross-cultural, citywide membership organization of low-income parents whose mission is to build a strong voice for low-income, immigrant and working families by uniting parents across race and community around issues of importance to families. They are currently working on three major campaigns: Elementary Justice: Redirecting the School-to-Prison Pipeline, to eliminate unnecessarily punitive discipline policies and practices that negatively impact children of color in Chicago’s public elementary schools; Recess for All!, seeking the return of recess to Chicago Public Schools by next school year, and The Early Learning Campaign, which aims to reduce structural barriers to enrolling low-income children of color in quality early education programs in Chicago. They recently scored a major victory in their Recess for All campaign. On Monday, May 23, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) released the new CPS guide to implementing recess in which they included recommendations submitted by POWER-PAC. The guide, developed in partnership with POWER-PAC’s parent organization Community Organizing and Family Issues (COFI), outlines the process by which schools can reinstate recess in the school day. Find out more about POWER-PAC. From the DSC Blog  by Shoshi Chowdhury, Dignity in Schools Campaign-NYThe Dignity in Schools Campaign-NY Chapter held a session on "Organizing for Change" at the one day conference, "Restoring Community in Schools: Promoting Positive Alternatives to the School to Prison Pipeline," hosted by the International Institute for Restorative Practices on May, 4 at the CUNY Grad Center. The conference was attended by diverse stakeholders including students, parents, teachers, principals, Department of Education officials, advocates, and policy makers. Read more Special Education Means No Education for Many Youth of Color  by Ernest Saadiq-Morris, Urban Youth JusticeSpecial education warehousing of Black youth and other youth of color is rampant in too many urban school districts. Special education warehousing is the disproportionate removal of youth of color from general education classrooms through referrals to special education classrooms that segregate them from the student population. Disproportionality occurs when the percentage of Black youth in special education —or a similarly situated special education subgroup, such as Latino/Hispanic English Language Learner students— is not proportionate to their percentage in the school or district’s general population. Read more More Schools Rethinking Zero-Tolerance Discipline Stand No Tolerance for Zero Tolerance Policies The OCR as a Tool in Dismantling the School-To-Prison Pipeline During Graduation Time, Let Us Reject The School-To-Prison Pipeline Updates from Local Chapters 
The Dignity in Schools Campaign New York Chapter is happy to announce that Shosi Chowdury has joined us as the DSC-NY coordinator. She joined DSC-NY after working as a youth organizer with Desis Rising Up & Moving (DRUM) where she conducted street and school outreach to increase the organization’s membership base of South Asian youth. Over the years she has been involved in campaigns and coalition work which successfully created policy changes in the New York City Department of Education to promote transparency on school discipline issues. Welcome Shoshi! |
 Parent to Parent Restorative Justice Guide Juvenile Justice Zine Series About the Dignity in Schools Campaign (DSC) The Dignity in Schools Campaign is a national coalition of youth, parents, advocates, community-based organizations, educators and policymakers working together to seek human rights-based solutions to the systemic problem of pushout in U.S. schools. |
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DIGNITY IN SCHOOLS | 90 JOHN ST. STE 308, NEW YORK, NY 10038 | TEL: (212) 253-1710 Ext. 317 | FAX (212) 385-6124 | info@dignityinschools.org |
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