Keeping Kids in School: The Equity Issue of Suspensions

Despite these regulations, however, these exclusionary discipline practices and their harmful and unjust impact continue. Over the past year, the Public Justice Center (PJC) has seen students be pushed out of school for minor behaviors like entering the school building to call for a ride home, and without any disciplinary process such as unilaterally transferring a student to just one hour per day of night school. How can good policy become everyday reality? Last fall, the PJC launched the Maryland Suspension Representation Project (MSRP) along with Disability Rights Maryland, the Office of the Public Defender, and the University of Maryland School of Law Youth, Education and Justice Clinic to provide legal representation for students facing suspension, expulsion, and other disciplinary exclusions from school.

Join us to learn about MSRP’s work to reconnect students with school and needed supports, hear how this can improve school systems and reduce school push-out and racial disparities in discipline, and share your ideas for keeping students in school.

This program is for Maryland Philanthropy Network members only. Lunch will be served.