Dear DSC members and allies,

This year is off to an exciting start! Last month the Departments of Education and Justice released historic Federal Guidance on School Discipline which provides legal direction for schools to address racial discrimination and shares recommendations for implementing best practices, such as restorative justice and positive behavior supports. You can click here for slides from a DSC webinar on using the guidance in your local work.

Stay tuned for more information from DSC about the guidance and let us know if there�s any support we can provide as you work to ensure the guidance is being implemented in your community.

Member Highlights

On January 22, DSC joined Legal Aid of North Carolina Advocates for Children�s Services (ACS) and a coalition of local, state, and national organizations in filing a complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice against law enforcement agencies and the school system in Wake County, NC. The complaint alleges a pattern of discrimination and unlawful criminalization caused by school policing policies. Youth Organizing Institute and the Education Justice Alliance were among the DSC member groups who filed the complaint. You can read the complaint and media coverage here.

On January 14, the Board of Education unanimously passed a new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that would create an agreement between the San Francisco Unified School District and the San Francisco Police Department to dramatically reduce police presence on school campuses and prevent unnecessary student referrals to the juvenile justice system.

Through the great work of DSC member Coleman Advocates and other community members they are hopeful that the chief of police will quickly sign the MOU to ensure these changes. Click here to read more about this victory.

On January 21, the Dayton Public School Board unanimously voted to adopt a verbal resolution presented by DSC member Racial Justice Now to support the adoption of Senate Bill 167 that looks to eliminate zero tolerance policies in the state. A board member will be attending the third hearing on the bill where the resolution will be presented. You can get updates from Racial Justice Now here.

After years of organizing by many Chicago organizations including DSC members Project NIA and COFI/POWER-PAC, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) gave a verbal commitment to community leaders that CPS will be releasing discipline data with detailed information including demographics broken down by race and disability. The data is to be released at the end of February. This will ensure more transparency on discipline in the district. Click here for more information.

Coordinating Committee Retreat

The DSC Coordinating Committee held their annual retreat in Washington D.C. in January. The Coordinating Committee discussed our strategic vision and goals for the coming year which we will discuss and finalize with members at our Annual Membership Meeting in March! DSC�s Coordinating Committee members are:

• Rebecca Arnold - Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Washington, DC
• Maisie Chin - CADRE, Los Angeles, CA
• Christopher Covington - Youth Committee of Building Healthy Communities, Long Beach, CA
• Maria Holt - Racial Justice Now, Dayton, Ohio
• Harold Jordan - ACLU of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
• Sally Lee - Teachers Unite New York, NY
• Monami Maulik - Desis Rising Up and Moving (DRUM), New York, NY
• Kim McGill - Youth Justice Coalition ,Los Angeles, CA
• Joyce Parker - Citizens for a Better Greenville and Mississippi Delta Catalyst Roundtable, Greenvile, MS
• Liz Sullivan - National Economic & Social Rights Initiative, New York, NY
• Marlyn Tillman - Gwinnett STOPP, Snellville, GA
• Marsha Weissman - Center for Community Alternatives, Syracuse, NY
• Gina Womack - Families and Friends of Louisiana's Incarcerated Children, New Orleans, LA

In the News

Maryland Approves New School Discipline Regulations
Donna St. George, The Washington Post, 1/28/2014
Maryland education leaders on Tuesday approved the most sweeping changes in decades to state discipline policies, culminating a four-year effort to find a more constructive approach to student punishment, end racial disparities in suspensions and keep students who are punished in school.

Suspended for a T-Shirt: Can We Fix the Race Problems in School Discipline?
Molly Knefel, Rolling Stone, 1/24/2014
While study after study has documented racial disparities in school discipline in districts across the country, the guidance�s federal data illustrates the sweeping extent of the problem. So what can we do to make our schools fairer? The federal guidance recommends a number of best practices to ensure that schools recognize, reduce and eliminate disproportionate treatment of students of color and students with disabilities, while fostering a safe and supportive educational environment. Here are a few of the best ideas:

Teen Handcuffed for Cutting In Line In School Cafeteria: Complaint
Saki Knafo, The Huffington Post, 1/23/2014
In some schools, students who cut in line at the cafeteria might be scolded or sent to a guidance counselor. In Wake County, N.C., they risk getting handcuffed and thrown in jail, according to a complaint against the local school district and law-enforcement agencies filed Wednesday with the U.S. Department of Justice.

Administration Urges Restraint in Using Arrest or Expulsion to Discipline Students
Motoko Rich, The New York Times, 1/8/2014
Of the federal guidance, Leticia Smith-Evans, interim director of education practice at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said, �We can only hope that districts will look at this and embrace it and try to make sure that they can move forward in a positive direction to make sure that all students in their schools are being educated.�