School to Prison Pipeline
“Suspensions, expulsions, and school-based arrests: These exclusionary and overly punitive disciplinary responses disproportionately impact Black students and have become normalized throughout the nation. In reality, school pushout, or the disciplinary sanction of removing students from the classroom, contravenes the very purpose of public education to prepare children to engage as full citizens in our democratic…
In October 2025, the Gault Center convened over three hundred youth defense lawyers and advocates at our annual Youth Defender Leadership Summit. Together, we practiced the cultivation of community in service of building a more just, more liberated, and more human humanity for all children and for us all. This resource captures the shared learnings…
This school pushout assessment and campaign development guide is a companion tool to Dignity in Schools Campaign’s Model Code on Education and Dignity and Youth Participatory Action Research Project. This checklist tool provides a framework for individuals and groups working in schools to assess school policies and practices around discipline, safety, curriculum, logistics, staffing, and other processes to prevent young people from being pushed…
From the conclusion” “Conclusion There is no question that the statistical picture of special education is bleak. But after its meeting of stakeholders, interviews with experts, and review of the research, NCD believes that IDEA and other related disability laws, with improved enforcement, can and should benefit at-risk students who are properly referred and served.…
From the abstract: “Hundreds of thousands of children are brought under the jurisdiction of delinquency courts every year in the United States. Despite the reality that most children engage in delinquent behavior during their adolescence, poor children, children of color, children with disabilities, and children who identify as LGBTQIA+ comprise a disproportionate number of those who become delinquency system-involved. These disparities exist…
This research report by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund provides an in-depth overview of the “At-Risk Youth Program” created by the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office in Tampa Bay, Florida. The Pasco County sheriff’s office relied on a “rudimentary, person-based predictive policing system” based on inherently biased criteria to identify young people who were “destined to…
The Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) released a report on the impact of generative artificial intelligence (AI) on students in schools. CDT surveyed students, teachers, and parents to understand the prevalence of deepfakes and related issues in K-12 schools. The report offers an overview of non-consensual intimate imagery (NCII), the impact of current responses…
This report reviews the expanding infrastructure of police surveillance in public schools and highlights the failure of AI technologies and digital surveillance in making schools safer. Further, the report discusses the harms these technologies may cause to Black and Latine youth and youth from other historically vulnerable communities. Calling on youth justice advocates, youth leaders,…
School-based arrests have long made up a substantial number of cases in the juvenile legal system. As a result, youth defenders often represent clients who have been seized, searched, or interrogated on school grounds. This guide provides a general overview of the law governing school seizures, searches, and interrogations and practice tips for challenging evidence…
This is a sample motion from Maryland asking the court to dismiss a petition in the interest of justice based on the school district’s violation of the “Child Find” provisions of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (20 U.S.C. § 1401 et. seq.) as applied to the respondent, Jane Doe.
From the introduction: “Imagine you’re a student with a disability that impacts how you interact with others and process situations. In an instant, that disability may be criminalized, and you could find yourself thrust into a juvenile justice system that offers little support and few education resources. This scenario is all too common. Thousands of…
From the introduction: “This brief offers context on the youth criminalization crisis in the United States. We then outline a series of harmful elements in the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. Specifically, we review provisions that: • Increase funding for threat assessments, surveillance, and greater police presence in schools; • Expand data-sharing between law enforcement and…
This report from The Sentencing Project discusses the state of diversion for youth in the juvenile legal system, existing disparities in diversion and why they are so severe, and strategies for expanding diversion. From the Summary: “Diverting youth from juvenile court involvement should be a central focus in efforts to reduce racial and ethnic disparities…
From the introduction: “One of our goals in producing this report is to inform school administrators, board members, and parent and student stakeholders, giving details about which groups of students are disproportionately arrested and about the gaps that exist in data reporting. We also want to provide guidance on how to address these issues. We…
From the introduction: “Communities across the country have come together to demand meaningful changes to law enforcement practices in the wake of the tragic murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Rayshard Brooks at the hands of the police. The focus has rightly been on how deadly police actions have had an outsized impact on…
This Article explores how race functions to ascribe and criminalize disability. It posits that for White students in wealthy schools, disabilities or perceived disabilities are often viewed as medical conditions and treated with care and resources. For students of color, however, the construction of disability (if it exists) may be a criminalized condition that is…
