School policies that include harsh punishments, automatic out-of-class time and police involvement for discipline contribute to pushing young people out of classrooms and into the criminal legal system. These punitive practices disproportionately affect Black and other children of color, students with disabilities, young people experiencing poverty and children from communities that have been historically marginalized.
Urgent change is needed to end school pushout and dismantle this school-to-prison pipeline. Together, families, educators and community members can advocate for and implement practices that prioritize mental health and well-being and do not push children out of the classroom.
We offer these resources to open dialogue, shift practices and foster change to benefit all young people.
[Updated Feb. 2025]
Resources
Reports
Only Young Once Series
Dismantling Georgia’s Punitive Youth Incarceration System
[2024] This report investigates policies and practices producing harm and racial disparities in Georgia’s youth legal system, and the political culture that undergirds it.
The Systemic Harm of Florida’s School-to-Prison Pipeline and Youth Legal System
[2024] This report explores the scope and impact of youth incarceration and ways Florida can reform and disrupt these systems.
Alabama’s Overreliance on School Pushout and For-Profit Youth Incarceration
[2024] This report details how a narrative of youth crime contributes to overly punitive school discipline, racial disparities, and an expensive youth legal system that is not designed for rehabilitation.
The Case for Mississippi’s Investment in Youth Decarceration
[2023] This report illustrates how Mississippi’s approach to youth justice is built on debunked notions of Black criminality, and offers a more humane alternative.
The Urgent Need for Reform of Louisiana’s Youth Justice System
[2023] This report explores how perceptions of Black youth in Louisiana’s school and juvenile justice systems contribute to an overreliance on punitive measures, leading to stark racial disparities.
Keep Her Safe: Centering Black Girls in School Safety
[2024] This case study and report by the National Women’s Law Center and the Southern Poverty Law Center with Black girls in Miami-Dade County Public Schools demonstrates how critical insights can come from centering Black girls in the school safety conversation.
Articles and Toolkits
Loving and Nurturing Young People
[2024] The author of ‘Humans Who Teach’ encourages us all to work together in a collective approach to nurturing young people’s well-being.
Becoming a Village
[2024] This family-school-community partnerships model emphasizes a liberatory, whole-child approach and collective effort to nurturing all our children.
The Heart of Facilitation in Restorative Justice
[2024] Inclusivity, understanding of power dynamics and cultural sensitivity are the heart of facilitation for effective restorative justice practices.
Understanding and Responding to Trauma
[2024] Strategies to help educators recognize the signs of trauma, better understand the causes of trauma, and take steps to establish social and emotional safety.
Applying Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Supports Inclusive Education
[2024] Ensuring education is inclusive of young people with diverse needs and abilities takes intentional practice. This article and toolkit highlights Universal Design for Learning (UDL) practices that can help educators design experiences that benefit all students and prevent children being pushed out of classrooms and into the school-to-prison pipeline.
Healing Through Restoration and Transformation
[2023] Highlighting a community Freedom School model in Mississippi that embraces transformative practices to strengthen relationships and disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline, this article illustrates the power of communities to effect change.
Toolkit: Peace-Building Circles
[2023] Transforming discipline practices requires commitment to processes that strengthen relationships among individuals and connections within communities. This toolkit, which accompanies the “Healing Through Restoration and Transformation” article, provides details for using peace-building circles.
Decarceration Begins With School Discipline Reform
[2022] By connecting harsh punitive practices in schools to the history of incarceration of Black Americans, this article contends that educators have a role in ending discipline that criminalizes youth. Reforms, including trauma-informed and restorative practices, can disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline.
It Was Always About Control
[2021] This article examines how compliance is at the root of discipline that harms young people and the urgent need to advocate for change.
Criminalizing Blackness: Prisons, Police and Jim Crow [Podcast Episode] from Teaching Hard History podcast series, Season 4, Episode 13
[2022] After emancipation, aspects of the legal system were reshaped to maintain control of Black lives and labor. Historian Robert T. Chase outlines the evolution of convict leasing in the prison system. And Historian Brandon T. Jett explores the commercial factors behind the transition from extra-legal lynchings to police enforcement of the color line. We examine the connections between these early practices and the more familiar apparatuses of today’s justice system—from policing to penitentiaries.
From Slavery to School Discipline
[2022] By examining the connection between school discipline and the history of slavery, this article explains how envisioning schools that affirm and protect Black students means reckoning with a long history of racist punishment.
Envisioning School Safety Without Police
[2021] This article examines how communities across the country are mobilizing to improve school safety without police presence while advocating for students’ dignity.
Parents Push for School Safety
[2021] This article highlights how a parent-led grassroots organization in Georgia chips away at punitive school discipline policies and works to remove police from their schools.
The School-to-Deportation Pipeline
[2019] As immigration enforcement becomes more aggressive, schools have become increasingly risky places for undocumented students. This article examines the crucial concern of the school-to-deportation pipeline.
Loc’d Out: How Thoughtless Dress Codes Can Harm Students from Day One
[2018] This article emphasizes how culturally insensitive policies that force students to hide their identities defy the mission of establishing an inclusive learning environment.
Controlling the Student Body
[2017] This article examines how dress and behavior policies that are not inclusive harm students and lead to unnecessary disciplinary actions.
Selected External Resources
- “Restorative Practices: Explained.” International Institute for Restorative Practices.
- Paul Osincup, “What Are ‘Restorative Practices’ in Schools? Hint: It’s Not Restorative Justice.” Community Matters.
- The UDL Guidelines. CAST.
- How To Share Space: Creating Community in Classrooms and Beyond. Atom Fire Arts Cooperative.
- Student Discipline and School Climate in U.S. Public Schools. U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights. November 2023.
- Emma Tynan, Sarah Kim Pak, Ignacia Rodriguez Kmec, Mark R. Warren, “Caught in an Educational Dragnet: How the School-to-Deportation Pipeline Harms Immigrant Youth and Youth of Color.” National Immigration Law Center, May 2022.
- K-12 Education: Department of Education Should Provide Information on Equity and Safety in School Dress Codes. U.S. Government Accountability Office, October 2022.
- Rachel M. Perera and Melissa Kay Diliberti, Survey: Understanding How U.S. Public Schools Approach School Discipline. Brookings Institution, January 2023.
- Bullies in Blue: The Origins and Consequences of School Policing. American Civil Liberties Union, April 2017.
- Benjamin W. Fisher, et. al., “Protecting the Flock or Policing the Sheep? Differences in School Resource Officers’ Perceptions of Threats by School Racial Composition.” Social Problems, Volume 69, Issue 2, May 2022.