Tell the Office of Civil Rights to Collect More Data on School Discipline!
Please take 1 minute to help keep school discipline in the Civil Rights Data Collection!
The U.S. Department of Education (ED) is accepting comments on its proposal for the next Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), our best national source for school discipline data.Please take 1 minute to tell ED how important this data is to us!
- Click on this link
- Click on “comment now,” and,
- Write “I support the Dignity in Schools Campaign’s comments” and/or anything else you want to tell ED about why the CRDC’s disciplinary data is important.
Comments close at 11:59pm eastern on Tuesday, August 20th. Please comment before then!
DSC's comments are available for download here. If you have any questions, please contact Matt Cregor at mcregor(at)naacpldf(dot)org.
National Week of Action on School Pushout
September 28 - October 5, 2013
On average, states spend $88,000 to incarcerate youth but only $10,000 to educate them. 
The 4th Annual National Week of Action on School Pushout will take place during the week of September 28 - October 5, 2013. Youth, parents and educators will hold rallies, marches, forums and teach-ins in 24 cities across 16 states including Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Philadelphia and Wisconsin. Visit and bookmark the National Week of Action on School Pushout page on the DSC's website for updates on events happening around the country! Help Us Spread the Word! The organizations participating in the 2013 National Week of Action on School Pushout are: ACLU of Pennsylvania , ACLU of Southern California, ACTION 21, Action Communication and Education Reform, Inc. (ACER), Activists With A Purpose, Advance Youth Leadership Power, Black Organizing Project, Boston- area Youth Organizing Project, CADRE, Center for Artistic Revolution, Center for Community Alternatives, Children’s Defense Fund-CA, Citizens for A Better Greenville, COFI/POWER-PAC, DSC-NY, Education Justice Alliance, Fannie Lou Hamer Center for Change, Families and Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children (FFLIC), Gwinnett SToPP, Iowa Pride Network, Make the Road NY, McComb Youth Council NAACP, Nollie Jenkins Family Center, Paterson Education Organizing Committee, Portland Parent Union, Power U Center for Social Change, Public Counsel, Racial Justice Now, Sistas and Brothas United, Statewide Education Organizing Committee, Sunflower County Parents and Students Organization, Teachers Unite, The Woman of God's Design Ministry, University of Florida, Youth on Board, Youth Organizing Institute, YWCA Madison. For more information: • If you'd like to host, organize or participate in a future Week of Action event, please contact DSC Field Organizer Fernando Martinez at - fernando@dignityinschools.org • For general questions about the National Week of Action or the Dignity in Schools Campaign please contact DSC Coordinator Natalie Chap at - natalie@dignityinschools.org
DSC Member Updates
Communities Around The Country Stand Their Ground Against Racial Profiling and the School to Prison Pipeline
 Miami, Fl - After 31 days and 30 nights of peacefully occupying the grounds of the Florida state capitol building in response to the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the killing of Trayvon Martin, youth leaders with the Dream Defenders, Power U Center and other allies have ended their sit-in. The young organizers succeeded in drawing national attention to unjust policies that disproportionately impact young people of color like Florida’s Stand Your Ground law, racial profiling, the criminalization of youth and the harsh discipline policies that feed the school-to-prison pipeline. The leaders pledge to continue this work through voter registration, ongoing visits to the Capital in the coming months and continuing to organize for change in their communities.
Los Angeles, CA - The verdict in the Trayvon Martin case has sparked action across the country, including in Los Angeles, CA where DSC-LA member Labor Community Strategy Center has launched the Rights Referendum for Trayvon Martin, which has already reached over 3,000 South LA residents. Organizers from the Strategy Center’s Fight for the Soul of the Cities Campaign have been canvassing their community and speaking with residents about the Trayvon Martin case, voting rights, and the need to build a new mass civil rights movement based on Black and Latino alliance in 2013. They are demanding that the US Department of Justice and the Obama Administration bring civil rights charges against George Zimmerman and the Sanford, Florida Police Department.
Chicago, IL - Project Nia has released A Youth-Friendly Reader About Trayvon Martin Case, a collection of writings about the issues involved in the Trayvon Martin case. This publication is appropriate for high school aged youth and older. It includes articles, manifestos, and poetry. The publication also offers a short list of potential activities and actions that young people can take.
Read more
In The News
Revised School Disciplinary Code Encourages Counseling, Protects Special Needs Students
Ben Chapman, New York Daily News, 08/18/13
"Education officials are taking a more sensitive approach to student misbehavior for the upcoming school year with a newly revised disciplinary code. The 2013-14 version of the city’s annually updated guidelines, which will take effect next month when classes resume, include new rules to encourage the use of counseling, reduce bullying and protect students with special needs. Education Department spokeswoman Margie Feinberg said the changes were meant to promote a better learning environment in the public schools for the city’s 1 million students."
Read more
Letter to the Editor: School Discipline Reform Works
David Beard, Baltimore Sun, 08/09/13
"The author of the op-ed 'The paradox of lowering standards' (August 5) may understand statistics, but he fails to grasp the purpose of the new school discipline regulations under consideration by the Maryland State Board of Education. The board's proposed discipline code aims to make sure that all children, of all races, get educated. Every day a child is suspended is a day that child misses a chance to learn — and more than 50,000 Maryland children are suspended or expelled annually. We can all agree that students should be held accountable for their behavior, but discipline must also be fair, appropriate and effective."
Read more
Protesters Have 'Rallies' Planned at the Capitol for a Long, Long Time
Marcus Joseph, Sunshine State News, 08/02/13
"Dream Defenders’ overnight forces at the Capitol might be diminishing, but the Hialeah-based protest organization has big plans to stage a rally right where they are, every Friday – including this one – for an indefinite period of time. Power U members have stood side-by-side with the Dream Defenders for the last seven days. “We are trying to change the injustice in schools and change the school-to-prison pipeline,” said Shamacus Carr, a 14-year-old U Power member from Miami. “Instead of kids getting suspended from school, they should get something else, like cleaning up the school or working at the school. We do outreach to get more youth, (organize) marches and protests and to restore justice.”
Read more
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UPCOMING EVENTS:
The People’s Budget Campaign Gets Animated!
Wednesday, August 21
3pm ET/2pm CT/1pm MT/12pm PT
NESRI is inviting everyone to take part in a webinar on human rights budgeting to launch our first animated film! On August 21, 3 pm ET/ 12 noon PT, the webinar will present our short film and discuss the serious disconnect between budget policies and the realities of people’s lives. We will show how inequality in our country is tied to the way public budgets are decided, and how we can make budgets more responsive to people's voices, needs and rights.
Click here to register for the People’s Budget webinar!
Model Code Webinar: PBIS
Thursday, August 29
4pm ET/3pm CT/2pm MT/1pm PT
Join us for the sixth in a series of webinars on the Dignity in Schools Campaign Model Code on Education and Dignity. This webinar will focus on Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports, found in chapter 3 of the Model Code. We will be joined by DSC members from Los Angeles, CA, Holmes County, MS, and New Orleans, LA who will share about their own successes and challenges in advocating for and implementing PBIS.
Click here to register for the webinar!
Film Premiere: Growing Fairness
Thursday, August 29, 6pm ET
Brecht Forum - 451 West St, New York, NY
Growing Fairness is a documentary, workshop and online toolkit developed by Teachers Unite together with NYC public school teachers designed to help school communities shift their culture from punitive to positive. The documentary takes an in depth look at the use of restorative practices and other alternatives to suspension in New York City and Oakland schools. It highlights the work being done to re-imagine public schools in Black and Latino/a communities most impacted by suspensions, pushout, racial profiling, and mass incarceration.
Click here to attend the premiere!
Click here to view the trailer!
DSC National Week of Action on School Pushout
September 28 - October 5, 2013
Click here to find out more!
NEW RESOURCES:
Report: The State of the School-to-Prison Pipeline in the Wake County Public School System
Advocates for Children's Services' latest report, "The State of the School-to-Prison Pipeline in the Wake County Public School System," is the most comprehensive school-to-prison pipeline report ever produced about a school district in North Carolina. It contains detailed analyses of five primary components of the school-to-prison pipeline in Wake County and also provides detailed, proven, cost-effective, practical strategies that have been shown to both alleviate the school-to-prison pipeline and increase student achievement, improve school safety and climates, promote equity, and reduce disparities based on gender, race, class, and disability.
Click here to download the report!
Case Study: Building Safe, Supportive and Restorative School Communities in New York City
This case study by the Dignity in Schools Campaign-New York, Make the Road New York, NESRI, Sistas and Brothas United and Teachers Unite highlights successful and innovative models for positive approaches to school discipline at four New York City schools and campuses. These models incorporate counseling, mentoring, peer mediation and school-wide restorative approaches that build supportive learning environments and promote dignity for all students. They demonstrate that collaboration across schools and among all members of the school community—students, parents, teachers, and security staff—can teach and convey a clear message of respect for all people and cultures.
Click here to download the case study!
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.
Visit us at www.dignityinschools.org to learn more.
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