The National Center for Youth Law joins many civil rights leaders in signing a letter urging California Governor Jerry Brown to sign AB 420 into law. California schools currently issue more suspensions—more than 700,000—than diplomas each year. This is a shocking fact, because two decades of research has shown that out-of-school suspension as a punishment is educationally unsound for those students most likely to be suspended. One out-of-school suspension can make it:
· 5 times more likely that a student will drop out of school
· Nearly 3 times more likely that a student will end up in the juvenile justice system within a year, as compared to similar students
Our state education code is causing the problem. One section, 48900(k), a.k.a. “willful defiance,” is the most serious grounds for nearly half of all suspensions, yet it is so subjective and vague that it is being applied disproportionately and disparately to students of color and students with disabilities.
AB 420 limits such suspensions in elementary school, where the state’s youngest children need extra chances and support; it also revises the definition of willful defiance so that it is more objective; and finally it focuses attention on alternatives.