STUDENTS WERE NEEDLESSLY ARRESTED OR SENT TO MENTAL HEALTH FACILITIES
In early March, the United States Department of Justice announced that it had reached a settlement with Florida’s Pasco County School District resolving an investigation into alleged discrimination of students with disabilities.
When it came to school discipline, the school district would “routinely” suspend mentally ill students or have them arrested rather than attempt to secure “proper support” or to otherwise “de-escalate” the situation.
Under the agreement with the DOJ, the District will now:
- Ensure that district personnel accurately assess disability-related behaviors, identify appropriate interventions for those behaviors and monitor the implementation of those interventions;
- Hire a consultant with expertise in behavior interventions who will assistin updating its policies and practices;
- Update its student code of conduct, threat assessment process and process for calling law enforcement to ensure that the district is adequately considering disability-related behaviors and modifying its policies and procedures to avoid discrimination based on disability;
- Develop appropriate trainings to help schools implement the agreement and respond appropriately to student behavior and
- Improve data collection and analysis systems and regularly evaluate data to ensure students with disabilities are not excluded from school for disability-related behaviors through the district’s discipline, threat assessment and law enforcement referral practices.
In a written statement, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, noted that, “As we mark the 70th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, we remain committed to disrupting the school to prison pipeline and ensuring that the doors of academic opportunity are open to all …. Too often schools rely on suspensions and law enforcement to address disability-related behaviors of students, without considering what they can do to help those students stay in and succeed at school. Equal participation in schools for students with disabilities means providing those students with the services and interventions they need to succeed. This agreement is part of our ongoing efforts across the country to combat practices that push students out of the classroom.”
Think they learned a lesson there?
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USDOJ PRESS RELEASE ~ 03.05.24
View the department’s letter to the district here.