Dive Brief:
- The entire staff, including administrators, at Medina Middle School in Columbus, OH, will receive special training in recognizing behavioral disabilities after one sixth-grader was found to have been suspended for 70 days in one school year.
- A state report submitted to the superintendent in Columbus noted that the length of the suspension was a violation of federal law, since the child in question hadn’t been evaluated to see if he needed special services.
- According to the Columbus Dispatch, the training will cover Child Find requirements like having assessment and intervention procedures in place, as well as accomodation plans for students who are behind.
Dive Insight:
Of note is the fact that school staff apparently weren’t familiar with the Child Find mandate of the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which requires districts to identify students in need of special services and refer them to early intervention programs, which are unique state-by-state.
Preventing suspensions appears to be key in dismantling the school-to-prison pipeline, a phenomenon in the U.S. that sees students driven out of the classroom and, ultimately, into incarceration by severe school disciplinary practices.
Across the nation, states have adopted different solutions to try to mitigate the problem, as well as that of the “disciplinary gap” between students of color and their white peers. Some, like Seattle, have banned suspensions in elementary schools. So far, California is leading the way overall, according to a new study from UCLA.