WASHINGTON — Across the country, school districts must balance equal access to education with keeping students safe. In some schools, that means having police officers on campus.
Now a new watchdog report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) reveals arrests or referrals for arrests are more common in K-12 schools where police are involved with discipline.
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“Arrest rates more than doubled in schools with police present compared to similar schools without police, according to GAO’s analysis,” the report said.
It found K-12 student arrests and referrals are disproportionately affecting students of color and students with disabilities.
“Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, Black, and American Indian/Alaska Native students were arrested at rates that were two to three times higher than white students. For boys who had a disability, the differences in arrest rates widened further,” the report said.
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The report is based on 2017-2018 data, the most recent available before the pandemic.
“Arrests and referrals to police are rare in schools, but when they happen… it is disproportionately affecting kids who are already vulnerable,” Jackie Nowicki, a Director for GAO, said. “You are removing them from the learning environment, involvement with the criminal justice system, sometimes called the school to prison pipeline – it has lifelong implications on kids and communities.”
The report pointed to an example in Florida where the Justice Department found a district violated the U.S. Constitution by discriminating against kids with disabilities.
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“Justice stated that the district routinely relied on suspensions and referrals to law enforcement to respond to students’ disability-related behaviors that it could have addressed through proper behavioral interventions and supports,” the report said about the Pasco County, Florida investigation.
In California, the report said the federal government found a school district disciplined Black students more often and more harshly than white students in similar situations. It also said the district “placed school police and campus security officers only at schools with larger shares of Black students.”
The report said as of May of this year, the Education Department had multiple investigations underway involving policing in schools.
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“When you start to see patterns like this, people should be asking why is that and what can we do to help kids moving forward?” Nowicki said.
Congress requested the report from GAO because lawmakers wanted a better understanding of how often arrests are happening in schools and which students are most affected.
GAO made three recommendations to the Education Department, which include collecting more complete data on student arrests and referrals and making sure districts are informed about changes in the data collection. The Education Department agreed with the recommendations.
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