The Federal School Discipline and Climate Coalition (FedSDC) issued the following statement after the Department of Education’s Release of a Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) Calling for an End to Corporal Punishment in Schools and Guiding Principles on School Discipline.
Washington D.C. – The Federal School Discipline and Climate Coalition (FedSDC) issued the following statement after the Department of Education’s Release of a Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) Calling for an End to Corporal Punishment in Schools and Guiding Principles on School Discipline:
“While many will applaud the Department of Education’s (ED) efforts calling for the end of corporal punishment in schools, we remain deeply disturbed that the Department is cherry-picking politically safe issues when addressing school discipline and artificially segregating these issues from the full range of civil rights violations faced by our nation’s Black and Brown students, youth and children. In spite of the agency’s promises and well-documented evidence as to the intersecting harms of racial disparities in exclusionary discipline; the use of restraints and seclusion; the presence of police in schools; and student threat assessments, the release of the DCL and Guiding Principles documents articulates that the Department of Education has decided to exclusively focus on eliminating corporal punishment. FedSDC has been consistent and clear in acknowledging the intersectionality of police in schools and the resulting fruit of exclusionary discipline – which disproportionately affects Black and Brown students, students with disabilities and other multi-marginalized youth.
ED has had two years to fulfill its commitments to protecting our students, youth and children from disproportionate school discipline and both the DCL and the guiding principles document are woefully inadequate responses. Our students, youth, and children deserve more than a half-hearted DCL and ineffectual guiding principles; rather, ED needs to address the continued, disproportionate harm and systemic racism faced daily by Black and Brown students, youth, and children in our nation’s schools.
Based on extensive knowledge and expertise on these topics, and comprehensive analyses of Department and state-level data, FedSDC knows that the guiding principles released concurrently with this letter are inadequate and ineffectual. ED’s silence on the civil rights of students in disciplinary disparities is complicit and is obstructing progress on protections called for by communities, families and advocates.. ED must cease sidestepping their responsibilities, and must understand that a commitment to “[r]aise the bar in education, advance equity, and support the well-being, safety and success of all students,” requires moving away from all coercive and punitive discipline policies and practices that are harmful, discriminatory, and indeed racist to Black and Brown students: police in schools, exclusionary discipline (suspension, expulsion), corporal punishment, restraint and seclusion.
Students, families, youth, and children deserve better. They deserve to know there are adults in the world, and civil servants in government, who are committed enough to demonstrate their care for them through concrete action and who will not place political expediency above their rights to be educated and thrive in our nation’s schools.”
FedSDC is a diverse group of local community organizers, national organizations, and directly impacted students, youth, families, and community members committed to advocating for legislative and federal action to protect the interests and educational rights of Black and Brown students and youth through a racial and educational equity lens. Establishing police-free schools while implementing effective, non-punitive, and culturally-sustaining practices in schools and alternatives to school discipline, is a core value of our coalition.
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