Putting School Suspensions on the Agenda
A coalition of community organizations pushing for Chicago Public Schools to reduce suspension and expulsion rates could find an ally in incoming schools chief Jean-Claude Brizard, who dramatically cut suspensions during his time in Rochester, N.Y., though some criticized Brizard’s methods for doing so.
By switching all short-term suspensions from out-of-school punishments to in-school punishments, Brizard lowered the district’s suspension rate from 15 percent to 2 percent in his first full year running the Rochester school system. But because in-school suspensions are not counted in the suspension rate, critics of Brizard in Rochester say the numbers changed, but the policy did not fully address behavioral problems.
“The whole goal here was to solely to lower the numbers. Whether the kid shows up or not, it doesn’t matter,”