This morning, I’m giving a presentation about school discipline reform to a local chapter of the American Association of University Women. Here are links to the resources that I’ll be mentioning today. They provide a pretty good picture of where we are in our region, and more broadly, in the need for school discipline reform.

Articles and Reports

Discipline Disparities for Black Students, Boys, and Students with Disabilities. Report of the Government Accountability Office, April 4, 2018.

Government Watchdog Finds Racial Bias in School Discipline. New York Times article about the GAO report, above, April 4, 2018.

Are We Closing the School Discipline Gap? Report of the Civil Rights Project, February 2015.

Missouri elementary schools have highest rate of suspending black children. St. Louis Post-Dispatch article about the Civil Rights Project, above, detailing the Missouri statistics, February 24, 2015.

Surviving School Suspensions. We Live Here podcast, with a map showing the disparity index of suspensions in the St. Louis area school districts, November 9, 2015.

Forward Through Ferguson. Report of the Ferguson Commission, September 2015 — especially the calls to action to Reform School Discipline Policies.

Books

Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools by Monique W. Morris

Closing the School Discipline Gap by Daniel J. Losen, Editor

Despite the Best Intentions: How Racial Inequality Thrives in Good Schools by Amanda E. Lewis and John B. Diamond

Creating Restorative Schools by Martha A. Brown

Better Than Carrots or Sticks: Restorative Practices for Positive Classroom Management by Dominque Smith, Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey

Organizations

These organizations are working in the St. Louis region, in a variety of ways, to implement school discipline reform and stop the school to prison pipeline. Most of them need volunteers and donations to continue this work. (Did I miss any? I’m happy to add more to this list!)

West County Community Action Network, working in Kirkwood, Parkway, Pattonville, and Rockwood

Metropolitan Congregations United, implementing the Break the Pipeline Campaign

Forward Through Ferguson, continuing the work outlined by the report of the Ferguson Commission

Ready by 21 St Louis, supporting children and youth

ACLU of Missouri, developing resources like Missouri’s Pipeline of Injustice: From School to Prison 

Legal Services of Eastern Missouri, providing legal assistance for students and families

Shut It Down, closing the school to prison pipeline

A Red Circle, supporting students, teachers, and parents in Normandy, Jennings, Riverview Gardens, Ferguson-Florissant, and Hazelwood

Alive and Well STL, training St. Louisans to be trauma-aware