"Some Houston ISD principals banished as much as 11 percent of their students with disciplinary problems to a privately run alternative campus last school year, while other principals sent only one or two children away.
The wide disparity in principals' use of schools run by Community Education Partners has caught the attention of HISD Superintendent Terry Grier, who questions whether schools are kicking out too many students on trivial grounds.
Texas law requires that students be sent to disciplinary alternative programs for certain reasons — such as assault and selling or using drugs or alcohol — but gives principals discretion over less serious offenders.
“Why are some schools sending so many children to CEP for what on the surface look like much less serious disciplinary actions?” asked Grier, who, after four months on the job, has ordered a comprehensive review of the Houston Independent School District's arrangement with CEP."
