Schools Matter: New Report Explores Links in School-to-Prison Pipeline

Schools Matter: New Report Explores Links in School-to-Prison Pipeline

New Report Explores Links in School-to-Prison Pipeline

by Jim Horn

From Council of State Governments Justice Center:

Executive Summary:
This report describes the results of an extraordinary analysis of millions of school and juvenile justice records in Texas. It was conducted to improve policymakers’ understanding of who is suspended and expelled from public secondary schools, and the impact of those removals on students’ academic performance and juvenile justice system involvement.

Like other states, school suspensions—and, to a lesser degree, expulsions—have become relatively common in Texas. For this reason and because Texas has the second largest public school system in the nation (where nonwhite children make up nearly two-thirds of the student population), this study’s findings have significance for—and relevance to—states across the country.

Several aspects of the study make it groundbreaking. First, the research team did not rely on a