Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/45838
The national scene Alabama law drives children out of public schools NEA President: We haven't seen anything as ugly as this since the days of segregation WASHINGTON, D.C., October 5, 2011….. Following a U. S. District Court ruling on an Alabama immi- gration law, scores of immigrant families have withdrawn their chil- dren from classes or kept them home this week. Parents are afraid that sending their children to school will draw attention from authorities, according to media reports. "Our schools provide a crucial safe harbor for all children," said NEA President Dennis Van Roekel. "This law is having a chilling effect – children are literally vanishing from Alabama classrooms. School employees are hired to help stu- dents learn, not check their immi- gration status. What students need most to succeed is an education and this law gets in the way of that." A bill passed by Alabama lawmak- ers, H.B. 56, requires school staff to ask the parents of newly enrolling students for proof of citizenship for students. Parents are not required to provide such proof, but if they fail to do so, the student is pre- sumed to be undocumented for reporting purposes. "We applaud the U.S. Department of Justice for its efforts to curb this harmful law," said NEA President Dennis Van Roekel. "Our public schools were created with the prom- ise that all students who walk through their doors would be edu- cated – regardless of the child's national origin or the economic sta- tus of their parents." The U.S. Supreme Court previous- ly supported the right of children to be educated regardless of their national origin in , (1982). NEA filed an amicus brief in that case. NEA and the Alabama Education Association filed an amicus brief, challenging H.B. 56. The brief stat- ed that "the purpose and effect of H.B. 56 is to use fear and intimida- tion to drive undocumented immi- grants and their children out of the state of Alabama. The message 'You're not welcome here' harks back to another period in history when children were denied the right to an education – a period America's students should never have to revisit," said Van Roekel. "Nobody wins when a state law pushes students into the shadows," said Van Roekel. "The National Education Association believes all students should have access to pub- lic education and we will continue our legal support to remove H.B. 56 from Alabama's law books." Go to for coverage of Alabama's immigration law. New report upends conventional wisdom on school suspensions Conventional wisdom suggests that suspend- ing students for minor offenses improves the educational experience for the remaining stu- dents. It turns out that conventional wisdom is wrong. for disciplining troublesome stu- dents, including suspensions from school for minor offenses. Several in Delaware have already begun looking at individual situations, based on unintended conse- quences to students and families when "zero tolerance" is rigidly enforced. In a new report, Dan Losen of M UCLA's Civil Rights Project, writes that "kicking out the bad kids so the good kids can learn" does not improve education for anyone - including the "good" kids. "There is no evidence that such an approach works to improve the education of well-behaved stu- dents, let alone the education of any schools around the country have adopted a "zero-tolerance" policy the students removed from school," Losen says in his report, entitled Losen's report was produced by the National Education Policy Center (NEPC), housed at the University of Colorado at Boulder School of Education, with funding from the Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice. "Our public schools are essential to preparing our children to partici- pate fully in our economic and dem- ocratic future," Losen writes. "With these interests at stake, U.S. policy- makers must find more effective ways to educate all of the nation's children, including those who may be challenging to engage." Instead of improving education, Losen found, overzealous suspen- sion policies only make things worse. Often, suspended students are sent home from school without daytime supervision, opening the door for idle time and more oppor- tunities to engage in harmful activ- ities. Let's say Johnny is suspended for using his cell phone in class — or even something less innocuous. Johnny goes home to a single-par- ent household, and his mom is at work. She can't afford a babysitter, so Johnny is left to his own devices. What do you think? Share with colleagues on the DSEA Facebook page. Johnny eventually takes to the streets, where he causes much more serious damage to our communi- ties. Meanwhile, back at school, some- one else rises up to take Johnny's place as the new classroom ne'er do well. The cycle starts all over again. Losen found that overly aggres- sive suspension policies can trans- form minor disciplinary issues into major social problems, without improving conditions in the class- room. Suspension policies are racially biased Losen found that black students are disproportionately suspended for similar offenses compared with their white peers. Nearly three times as many black males are suspended as white males for similar offenses, Losen reports, while more than four times as many black females are suspended compared with white females. Black students are more likely than white students to be sent to the principal's office for similar minor offenses such as cell phone use, disruptive or disrespectful behavior and public displays of affection, research shows. The dis- parity between race and suspen- sions has tripled since the 1970s. Losen has released model legisla- tion (available online at ) that federal and state policymakers can enact to help reduce racial dispari- ties, improve education for all stu- dents and bring discipline policies more in line with academic research. Report Summary * Many school administrators are too quick to suspend students for minor offenses, which doesn't help well-behaved students and may harm those students who are suspended. * African-American students are disproportionately suspended for similar offenses compared with their white peers. * Federal and state policymak- ers should work with local schools to develop/adopt alternatives to suspension that keep classrooms orderly while giving all students the opportunity to succeed in life after graduation. 8 October 2011 DSEA ACTION! www.dsea.org Plyler v. Doe /08/31/alabama-schools-worry- about-effects-of-harsh-immigration- law/ http://neatoday.org/2011 NEAToday's www.great lakescenter.org - Discipline Policies, Successful Schools and Racial Justice. -