Education
If there is a School to Prison Pipeline in the United States, it must run right through Volusia County. The discipline policies in our school are criminalizing our young people.
The US Department of Education reports that out-of-school suspensions “are associated with negative student outcomes such as lower academic performance, higher rates of dropout, failures to graduate on time, decreased academic engagement, and future disciplinary exclusion.” The Florida Association of School Psychologists reports that students who are suspended just one time are ten times more likely to drop out of school than their un-suspended classmates. Yet, in a state that leads the nation in out of school suspensions, our county ranks 5th highest out of 67 counties in the state for suspending kids.
Our county has an extremely highest rate of school-based arrest. For instance, Spruce Creek High School in Port Orange has the second highest arrest rate in the entire state of Florida! Arrests stay on children records for life and can bar them from receiving college scholarship, securing a good job, or even entering the military.
The harm of these disciplinary polices are not distributed equally. Students with disabilities and students or color are TWICE AS LIKELY to be ARRESTED and SUSPENDED than their classmates!
This is unacceptable.
Alternatives to these methods of punishment, such as Restorative Practices, have been enormously successful in school systems all over the country. In Duvall County, Florida, after implementing Restorative Practices, out-of-school suspensions in the district fell by 25%!
This year, F.A.I.T.H. is calling on School Board Members to commit to expanding Restorative Practices from two middle schools in Volusia County to all middle and high schools by 2023. F.A.I.T.H. is also asking School Board Members to create a plan to reduce suspensions by 50% or more in the next 3 years and to add measures to that plan which aim to eliminate the disparity in the suspensions of students of color and students with disabilities.
The US Department of Education reports that out-of-school suspensions “are associated with negative student outcomes such as lower academic performance, higher rates of dropout, failures to graduate on time, decreased academic engagement, and future disciplinary exclusion.” The Florida Association of School Psychologists reports that students who are suspended just one time are ten times more likely to drop out of school than their un-suspended classmates. Yet, in a state that leads the nation in out of school suspensions, our county ranks 5th highest out of 67 counties in the state for suspending kids.
Our county has an extremely highest rate of school-based arrest. For instance, Spruce Creek High School in Port Orange has the second highest arrest rate in the entire state of Florida! Arrests stay on children records for life and can bar them from receiving college scholarship, securing a good job, or even entering the military.
The harm of these disciplinary polices are not distributed equally. Students with disabilities and students or color are TWICE AS LIKELY to be ARRESTED and SUSPENDED than their classmates!
This is unacceptable.
Alternatives to these methods of punishment, such as Restorative Practices, have been enormously successful in school systems all over the country. In Duvall County, Florida, after implementing Restorative Practices, out-of-school suspensions in the district fell by 25%!
This year, F.A.I.T.H. is calling on School Board Members to commit to expanding Restorative Practices from two middle schools in Volusia County to all middle and high schools by 2023. F.A.I.T.H. is also asking School Board Members to create a plan to reduce suspensions by 50% or more in the next 3 years and to add measures to that plan which aim to eliminate the disparity in the suspensions of students of color and students with disabilities.
