Page 101 - Impact: Collected Essays on the Threat of Economic Inequality

Changing the School to Prison Pipeline: IntegratingTrauma-Informed Care in the NewYork City School System
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Ellen Yaroshefsky and Anna Shwedel1
In the past decade, national, state and local, attention has focused sharply on the various ways in which our country’s education and criminal justice systems fail our youth, notably youth of color who fall at or below the poverty line . The term “school to prison pipeline” spotlighted the connection between school suspensions and court involvement . The phenomenon has been well documented .2 Beginning in the 1970s with the implementation of zero tolerance in schools, the rates of suspensions of young people skyrocketed through 2012 .3 In New York City alone, the numbers and percentages of suspensions were alarming . The relationship between suspension and criminal justice involvement was made clear . The suspensions disproportionately affect Black and Latino youth, notably those who come from low-income districts .4 Students with special needs are disproportionately suspended .5
In the last five years, New York State—among others--has focused upon the middle to end of the pipeline: juvenile detention and jail facilities . It has devoted significant resources in an attempt to change the culture and practice in the so-called “juvenile justice” system .6 The studies and data overwhelmingly demonstrate that the punitive approach that was operational for scores of years is counterproductive and dangerous, and all but ensures that these children are doomed to failure as measured by any criteria—education, jobs, family, and community involvement .
1 Ellen Yaroshefsky is Clinical Professor of Law and the Director of the Youth Justice Clinic and the Jacob Burns Center for Ethics in the Practice of Law at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. Anna Shwedel is a 2015 Cardozo Law School graduate and was a student in the Youth Justice Clinic.
2 The term “school to prison pipeline” refers to the process and practices, exacerbated by zero tolerance policies, where children are funneled from public schools suspensions into the juvenile and criminal justice system. What is the School-to-Prison-Pipeline?, aclu (Apr. 14, 2015), https://www.aclu.org/what-school-prison- pipeline?redirect=racial-justice/what-school-prison-pipeline. In recent years, many have challenged the term and instead use the term “School climate” to refer to ways in which the school system needs improvement to reduce suspensions. See City Announces School Climate Reforms, nyc dep’T of educaTion (Feb. 13, 2015), http://schools. nyc.gov/Offices/mediarelations/NewsandSpeeches/2014-2015/City+Announces+School+Climate+Reforms.htm.
3 Fernanda Santos, Sharp Rise in Suspensions at City’s Schools is Cited, n.y. Times, Jan. 27, 2011, http://www. nytimes.com/2011/01/28/nyregion/28suspend.html. See also nyc compTroller John c. liu, The suspension spike: changing The discipline culTure in nyc’s middle schools 1 (2013), available at http://comptroller.nyc.gov/wp-content/ uploads/documents/NYC_MiddleSchools_Report.pdf.
4 Data from the 10-year period covering 1999-2000 to 2008-2009 show that while Black students make up only 33 percent of the city’s public school population, they constitute more than half of the suspensions every year. new york civil liBerTies union, educaTion inTerrupTed 8 (Jan. 2011), available at http://www.nyclu.org/files/publications/ Suspension_Report_FINAL_noSpreads.pdf.
5 Over the course of the 2012-2013 school year, students with special needs accounted for 34.1 percent of the suspensions, despite only being 12 percent of the overall population. Shoshi Chowdhury, New Data Show Decrease in NYC School Suspensions, But Next Mayor Still Has Work to Do, digniTy in schools (Nov. 1, 2013), http://www. dignityinschools.org/press-release/new-data-show-decrease-nyc-school-suspensions-next-mayor-still-has-work-do. Further, on Wednesday, May 20, 2015, Advocates for Children settled a class action lawsuit with the New York City Department of Education. The lawsuit alleged that children with special needs were unlawfully denied certain legal protections after suspension and were excluded from certain activities in school. E.B. et al. v. New York City Dep’t of Education et al., Stipulation and Agreement of Settlement, No. 02 CV 5118 (ENV/MDG) (May 13, 2015) available at http://www.advocatesforchildren.org/sites/default/files/library/eb_stip_may_2015.pdf?pt=1.
6 Anecdotally, observers contrast the existing case-processing system with one that actually provides a measure of justice and assistance to those snared within its confines.
Lessons from New York City