Individual Education Plans For Every Student Essay

In the 2011-2012 school year, New York City imposed 70,000 suspensions, and arrested hundreds of students, many for non criminal behavior (“New York City’s”). This is a direct ramification of the school to prison pipeline. The school to prison pipeline is “...the policies and practices that are directly and indirectly pushing students of color out of school and on a pathway to prison, including, but not limited to: harsh school discipline policies that overuse suspension and expulsion, increased policing and surveillance that create prison-like environments in schools, overreliance on referrals to law enforcement and the juvenile justice system, and an alienating and punitive high-stakes testing-driven academic environment.” (“Discipline”),

The School-to-Prison Pipeline presents the intersection of a K-12 educational system and a juvenile system, which too often fails to serve our nations at risk youth. For most students, the pipeline begins with inadequate resources in public schools. Overcrowded classrooms, a lack of qualified teachers, and insufficient funding for "extras" such as counselors, special education services, even textbooks, lock students into second-rate educational environments. This failure to meet educational needs increases disengagement and dropouts, increasing the risk of later court involvement (Bennett-Haron, Fasching-Varner, Martin, & Mitchell 2014). Even worse, schools may actually encourage dropouts in response to pressures from test-based accountability regimes such as the No Child Left Behind Act, which create incentives to push out low-performing students to boost overall test scores (Cramer, Gonzales, & Lafont-Pellegrini 2014). Lacking resources, facing incentives to push out low-performing students, and responding to a handful of highly-publicized school shootings, schools have embraced zero-tolerance policies that automatically impose severe punishment regardless of circumstances. Under these policies, students have been expelled for bringing nail clippers or scissors to school (Christle, Jolivette, & Nelson 2005). Rates of suspension have increased dramatically in recent years from 1.7 million in 1998 to 3.1 million in 2010

In conclusion, some of the solutions included in this paper to dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline are to create non-punitive approaches, minimize investment in costly correctional systems to direct funds to under-resourced schools to create programs that would increase educational attainments. Programs such as Reconnecting Youth, intend to help students who face aggression, substance abuse and depression get through school and increase their educational performance. Further solutions included in this paper are: to restore discipline responsibilities to educators, reduce the use of police officers in schools and mandate alternatives to harsh discipline. The alternatives to harsh discipline include non-punitive approaches, which refers

Our government only focuses on keeping them out of society. Authorities do not have a

Our government continues to prioritize funding prisons over classrooms. Adolescents who have access to a better education and more pleasant

With the rate of suspensions and expulsions going up this can lead to students falling behind in their course work and being left unsupervised (school-to-prison). Without the steady routine of going to school and doing homework students can get in trouble with the law outside of school and end up in a Juvenile detention facility or even dropping out of school (school-to-prison). Most juvenile detention facilities have little to no education services and the end up never graduating or getting a GED (school-to-prison). In Ohio almost 80% of children in the court don’t have lawyers, which makes their chance of ending up in a detention facility greater (school-to-prison). It’s even worse for blacks and hispanics.

For a portion of their lives, the average person most likely believes that the criminal justice system executes justice and disciplines offenders accordingly. Reflecting upon the United States’ history, it is proven that this is not always the case. When the phrases “school” and “prison” come to mind, they typically have no correlation to each other⎼until the topic of the "school-to-prison pipeline" is introduced. The school-to-prison pipeline refers to policies and procedures within the classroom that push our nation's schoolchildren, especially those most at-risk, out of classrooms and into the juvenile and criminal justice systems. This pipeline reflects the prioritization of incarceration over education. Reform within schools is crucial

“Seventy percent of students involved in “in school” arrests or referred to the law enforcement are Black or Latino” (Travis doc). A majority of students attend school to graduate or further their education, but many do not have the opportunity to accomplish neither of these achievements. A great majority of students are being sent down the school-to-prison pipeline, which is a transition from school to the juvenile or prison system. Schools have adopted a strict and militaristic policy to deal with defiant, violent, and slow learning students. Most students are expelled, suspended or referred to the police, but most issues could be handled without expelling, suspending, or notifying the police. “Far too often, students are suspended, expelled

The School-to-Prison Pipeline is a “national trend wherein children are funneled out of public schools and into the juvenile and criminal justice systems” (“School-to-Prison Pipeline”). This phenomenon brings children into the juvenile justice system at a very young age. An article published in the journal Urban Education explains that, “The school-to-prison pipeline contributes to the atmosphere of increased surveillance of schools including police presence in schools, zero-tolerance policies, physical restraint tactics, and automatic consequence policies, resulting in suspensions from school” (Martin, Beese 2015). By increasing police presence in schools, children are more likely to be searched, questioned, or targeted by police than they would be without police present. And as a result, “children are far more likely to be subject to school-based arrests—the majority of which are for nonviolent offenses, such as disruptive behavior—than they were a generation ago” (“School-to-Prison Pipeline”). For example, if a child was misbehaving in class in a school that had a police presence, they could possibly get arrested and sent to prison. But if a child was acting the same way in a school that did not have any police presence, they would not be arrested. Police would most likely be present in a school in an urban environment or poor neighborhood because more crime occurs in urban and poor places, so in theory, by placing police in schools, they would be preventing any crimes

In a news article by The Kansan, writer Jade Hudson Newson reports the correlation between high incarceration rates and discipline in high schools. Faculty member at Bethel College Gary Flory discusses the “School-to-Prison Pipeline” and the correlation between education and prison. Flory shares information about the inmates and what level of education they have and found that a majority of inmates did not have a high school diploma nor a GED. However; Flory makes sure to mention that it is not the lack of education that lands people in prison, but how they were punished in high school. Flory makes the connection that students who we suspended multiple times or expelled were more likely to drop out of high school.

School to prison pipeline is an upcoming challenge for today's schools on deciding what the punishment should be for students. “a disturbing national trend wherein children are funneled out of public schools and into the juvenile and criminal justice systems.”Daniel J. Losen & Gary Orfield eds., 2002)

This is being justified by the article, ‘No Pass/No Drive’: The Answer To High Drop-Out Rates, the article states, “With a 25% dropout rate in the United States something must be done. High school dropouts commit about 75% of the crime in the US and are more likely to be unemployed or need government assistance”(6). What this basically means is that if the drop-out rate is lowered the crime rate could be lowered too. This is a good thing because then not as many students would take on a life of crime and not be

The ever-growing problem that is occurring in public schools around the country is the school to prison pipeline epidemic. The school to prison pipeline is a term used to describe how students are being pushed out of public school and into the criminal justice system. This epidemic is a result of the education system’s zero tolerance policy that enforces harsh punishments for misbehaving students. Although its goal was to eliminate misbehavior, studies have shown that the increased disciplinary actions have resulted in a modified school environment, police in school

Most students exposed to the school-to-prison-pipeline are minority, or students who have history of poverty, or students with disabilities. I believe there are other consequences for misbehaved students. The new “zero tolerance” policy criminalize minor infractions of school rules, while cops in schools lead to students being criminalized for behavior that should be handled inside the school. “For most students, the pipeline begins with the inadequate resources in public schools. Overcrowded classrooms, a lack of qualified teachers, and insufficient funding for “extras” such as counselors, special education services, and even textbooks, lock students into second-rate educational environments. This failure to meet educational needs increases

I agree that children with and without disabilities should have someone look out for them, a person who will encourage and support them toward academic achievement. Teachers, easily fulfill the role of an advocate as they offer advice, provide encouragement, or are simply there to listen. This person lets their students know that they believe in them and will be there for them. However, administrators and other school staff can be advocates for students as well, by working with them, helping them develop a repertoire, and guiding them. A successful advocate functions as a positive role model that shares their experiences and knowledge, take special interest in their students, motivating students to always have a positive attitude.