- Local police handcuff and arrest a second-grader. Video footage shows the boy sobbing as an officer announces, “You’re going to jail.” Three officers are called to the scene—an elementary special education classroom—where they arrest the 8-year old with disabilities on charges of felony battery.
- Police arrest a 6-year-old girl following a disability-related tantrum at school. She is taken into custody and fingerprinted, and her mugshot is taken.
- A school resource officer handcuffs a 10-year-old boy with autism and pins him to the ground for arguing with his teacher and hiding in a classroom closet.
- A school safety officer removes a third-grader from his class and closes him in a staff bathroom. Bodycam footage shows the officer telling the child to “stop crying like a little girl.” The boy’s crime? He refused to leave his art class.
How Does This Happen?
When a student with disabilities exhibits challenging behavior related to their disabilities, the law says they are supposed to receive special education and related services to address those behaviors. There are legal protections to prevent inappropriate disciplinary actions like suspension and expulsion from school.
Increasingly, however, schools are taking a reactive, punitive approach to student behavior issues. According to advocates, the growing use of resource officers and police in schools is making the problem worse.
A National Perspective
- During the 2017–18 school year, students in the United States were referred to law enforcement nearly 230,000 times. A study by the Center for Public Integrity found that school policing disproportionately affects students with disabilities and Black children: they are referred to law enforcement at nearly twice the rate of others.
- According to data from the U.S. Department of Education, 2015–2016 Civil Rights Data Collection, students with disabilities were arrested and physically harmed by school police at higher rates than non-disabled students. Data from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) show that students with disabilities were nearly three times more likely to be arrested than students without disabilities, and the risk is multiplied at schools with police.
- Research by the National Survey of Children’s Health showed that 5.4 percent of young children with disabilities had been suspended or expelled, compared to 1.2 percent of children without disabilities. Younger children with attention deficit disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or related behavioral challenges were also more likely to experience exclusionary practices.
Long-Term Effects: Pipeline to Prison
Disciplinary action that removes a student from the school building or the classroom increases the chance that a student will repeat a grade, drop out, or end up in the criminal justice system, according to a report issued by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Beyond Suspensions: Examining School Discipline Policies and Connections to the School-to-Prison Pipeline for Students of Color with Disabilities.
Researchers from Boston University, the University of Colorado Boulder, and Harvard University have found that punishment of behavior at school when a child is young is linked to increases in adult crime. Students who attended a stricter middle school are more likely to have been arrested and incarcerated as adults. They were also more likely to drop out of high school and less likely to attend a four-year college.
More Counselors, Fewer Cops
According to a report by the American Civil Liberties Union, there is not strong evidence that police in schools improve safety, educational outcomes, or mental health. In fact, evidence suggests that the presence of school resource officers (SROs) actually harms students. They report on a 2018 study that looked at the impact of school police in Texas on 2.5 million students. It showed a 6 percent increase in middle school discipline rates, a 2.5 percent decrease in high school graduation rates, and a 4 percent decrease in college enrollment rates. Another 2018 study found that adding more police in New York City schools hurt the test scores of Black male students.
In many districts, school counselors, nurses, social workers, and psychologists are the first to see students when they are stressed or traumatized. Data show that schools with adequate support services not only have lower rates of suspension and expulsion, they also have improved attendance rates, better academic achievement, and higher graduation rates. Under-resourced schools can become a pipeline to prison when they rely on police rather than educators and counselors to manage behavior and discipline issues. School resource officers who patrol school hallways often have little or no training in working with youth. Students in these schools are more likely to be subject to school-based arrests, most of which are for nonviolent offenses, such as disruptive behavior.
Cops, Not Counselors
- 1.7 million students are in schools with police but no counselors.
- 3 million students are in schools with police but no nurses.
- 6 million students are in schools with police but no school psychologists.
- 10 million students are in schools with police but no social workers.
- 14 million students are in schools with police but no counselor, nurse, psychologist, or social worker.
(ACLU)
Greatest Impact on Black Males with Disabilities
Students with disabilities represent a quarter of students arrested and referred to law enforcement, and Black males with disabilities are most vulnerable to being propelled along the school-to-prison pipeline. Research shows they are disciplined more harshly, and more frequently referred to law enforcement, subject to school-based arrest, and incarcerated. Over 13 percent of students with disabilities receive out-of-school suspension, compared with 6 percent of students without disabilities. For Black male high school students with disabilities, approximately one-third are subjected to school discipline.
The higher rate of school discipline does not reflect a higher rate of misbehavior, but reflects instead the impact of school policies, practices, and leadership. Each suspension increases a student’s likelihood of becoming delinquent, abusing substances, getting involved with gangs, and getting caught up in the juvenile justice system.
Jails and Detention Centers
Youth with disabilities are especially vulnerable to the impact of secure confinement. The rate of suicide in juvenile justice facilities is approximately four times greater than in the general population. Juvenile incarceration greatly increases the likelihood of further involvement with the criminal justice system.
Youth in the juvenile justice system are often denied procedural protections and often are not assigned a court-appointed lawyer. Students who commit even minor offenses may end up in secured detention if they violate probation conditions such as missing school or disobeying teachers.
In 2020, Disability Rights New Jersey received a grant from the Ford Foundation to prevent youth with disabilities from entering the juvenile justice system. Through the Special Education and Juvenile Justice Project in Mercer County, they work closely with the Public Defender, representing youth involved in the juvenile justice system who need special education services and supports. The goal is to get the student back in school with educational services and supports in place and also, when the charge is based on an incident that occurred in school, to get the delinquency charge reduced or dismissed.
The New Jersey Council on Developmental Disabilities has also identified this issue as a priority and has included it in its 5-Year State plan submitted to the Administration on Developmental Disabilities in Washington, DC. The Council will support projects using best practices designed to eliminate the inappropriate use of seclusion, restraint, suspension, and expulsion for Black and Hispanic students with disabilities in schools and districts with high rates of seclusion, restraint, suspension, or expulsion, and/or high rates of referral to law enforcement.
This story appeared in People & Families Magazine, February 2022 issue.
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