Human Rights Report Reveals Widespread Non-Compliance with Mandatory Policy Aimed at Stemming 'Pushout' Crisis in South Los Angeles Schools

African American Students Continue to Be Disproportionately Suspended From Schools

LOS ANGELES, June 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- As part of the U.S. Human Rights Fund's national convening being held in Los Angeles tomorrow, Community Asset Development Re-defining Education (CADRE), Public Counsel Law Center, and Mental Health Advocacy Services, Inc. (MHAS) released the primary findings from their report, Redefining Dignity in Our Schools: A Shadow Report on School-Wide Positive Behavior Support Implementation in South Los Angeles, 2007-2010.  

The report, which is the culmination of two years of comprehensive monitoring by South LA parents, parent organizers, attorneys, and researchers, analyzes the extent of implementation of Los Angeles Unified School District's mandatory School-Wide Positive Behavior Support Discipline Policy ("SWPBS Policy") in Local District 7 (LD 7), a district that covers much of South Los Angeles.  The report's release comes at a time when exclusionary discipline rates are the highest in the nation's history, and Education Secretary Arne Duncan recently remarked that disturbing nationwide gaps in the rates of suspension and expulsion between African Americans and their white counterparts "are hard to explain away by the usual suspects."  

Event Information

When: Tuesday, June 15, 2010, 3:30-5:00 p.m.

Where: United States Human Rights Fund Convening

Plenary Session

Westin Los Angeles Airport Hotel

5400 West Century Boulevard

Speakers include:  South Los Angeles CADRE parents and organizers who led participatory monitoring effort and civil rights attorneys from Public Counsel Law Center and Mental Health Advocacy Services, Inc.

The report's executive summary and primary findings will be available at www.cadre-la.org, www.publiccounsel.org, and www.mhas-la.org on June 15, 2010.  The full report will be available online June 30, 2010.

SOURCE Public Counsel

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