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| Assemblyman Roger Dickinson, D-Sacramento, has tabled his bill that would change disciplinary practices in California schools, |
Assemblyman Roger Dickinson, D-Sacramento, has tabled his bill that would change disciplinary practices in California schools, making it harder for administrators to expel and suspend disruptive students and eliminating the subjective category of “willful defiance” that accounts for nearly half of student suspensions statewide.
“We want a bill that is going to be effective on Day 1,” said Laura Faer, an attorney with Public Counsel, a pro bono law firm based in Los Angeles and a sponsor of Assembly Bill 420. “We think we need a little more time to make sure it is as strong as it can possibly be.”
AB 420, which had been approved by the Assembly and the Senate Education committees, can be heard by the full Senate again in January, with any amendments.
The bill attempts to create a new approach to discipline that recognizes that many students come to school with complex emotional issues stemming from poverty, violence and trauma. Sponsors of AB 420 see the bill as a civil rights issue because of the disproportionate number of African American students suspended for willful defiance. They point to the danger of sending students home, where they are often left unsupervised.
“When we are suspending children, it makes it more likely they can end up in the juvenile justice