Preventing School Pushout and Justice System Involvement

A new resource, called Check It Out, aims to pre­vent stu­dents from being forced or encour­aged to exit school before grad­u­at­ing. It includes an assess­ment check­list to deter­mine if stu­dents are at risk of being pushed out of school as well as a cam­paign devel­op­ment guide to help orga­nize out­reach and engage the com­mu­ni­ty to enact real change. These tools — designed by Dig­ni­ty in Schools Cam­paign (DSC) and fund­ed by the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion — are intend­ed to help sup­port stu­dents who are hav­ing trou­ble while also ensur­ing that oth­er stu­dents and teach­ers can con­tin­ue to learn in a safe environment.

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“There’s a nation­wide pushout cri­sis fueled by zero-tol­er­ance dis­ci­pline poli­cies, low expec­ta­tions for stu­dents and oth­er fac­tors that lead to too many young peo­ple who are removed from school through sus­pen­sion or expul­sion when there are oth­er options,” said Isman­uela Denis, a pro­gram asso­ciate with the Foundation’s Juve­nile Jus­tice Strat­e­gy Group. ​“The guide’s solu­tions, informed by young peo­ple and aligned with restora­tive jus­tice prac­tices and oth­er approach­es to rein­force good behav­ior, can help cre­ate pos­i­tive learn­ing envi­ron­ments where all stu­dents thrive.”

Impli­ca­tions of Zero-Tol­er­ance Dis­ci­pline Policies

Get­ting sus­pend­ed or expelled from school sharply increas­es children’s odds of drop­ping out of school or enter­ing the jus­tice sys­tem. Nation­al­ly, Black stu­dents and stu­dents with dis­abil­i­ties are dis­ci­plined at much greater rates than oth­er students.

Youth Views on Fac­tors that Lead to Leav­ing School

Work­ing with its mem­ber orga­ni­za­tions to reduce in-school arrests or school-based refer­rals to law enforce­ment — col­lo­qui­al­ly known as dis­man­tling the school-to-prison pipeline — DSC con­duct­ed a youth-includ­ed research project from 2021 to 2023. It doc­u­ment­ed high school stu­dents’ views on the fac­tors push­ing young peo­ple out of school and into the jus­tice sys­tem. More­over, the project report­ed stu­dents’ rec­om­men­da­tions for edu­ca­tion­al prac­tices that keep young peo­ple on track in school.

“Mak­ing sure emo­tion­al and men­tal health needs are being met was empha­sized by the young peo­ple inter­viewed,” said Natal­ie Chap, DSC’s nation­al coor­di­na­tor. ​“Vir­tu­al­ly every young per­son inter­viewed would bring up the top­ic of a lack of con­nec­tion with peers and adults and not feel­ing they belonged.”

Iden­ti­fy­ing Solu­tions for Improv­ing Edu­ca­tion­al Environments

Based on its inter­views, Check It Out out­lines a three-step process for advo­cates, schools and com­mu­ni­ties to improve edu­ca­tion­al environments:

1. Eval­u­ate 10 indi­ca­tors of young peo­ple being at risk of leav­ing school pre­ma­ture­ly. Each indi­ca­tor includes a detailed check­list of issues to help iden­ti­fy a school’s or district’s biggest risk factors. 
2. Iden­ti­fy exist­ing solu­tions and poten­tial gaps via a check­list of pos­i­tive school prac­tices and open-end­ed ques­tions. Pos­i­tive school prac­tices include clear expec­ta­tions for stu­dent behav­ior and no out-of-school sus­pen­sions for first-time offenses.
3. Look at pos­si­ble solu­tions and strate­gi­cal­ly focus your list of sug­gest­ed changes.

Diver­sion and Prevention

Young peo­ple don’t tran­si­tion into adult­hood in iso­la­tion. The envi­ron­ments and sup­port net­works around them — at home, work and school — all help shape their growth. ​“Part of help­ing young peo­ple nav­i­gate ado­les­cence is mak­ing schools safer and more wel­com­ing,” Denis said.

The Casey Foundation’s invest­ment in Check It Out is part of a larg­er effort to pre­vent youth from need­ing to enter the jus­tice sys­tem, keep­ing them in the class­room or on oth­er pos­i­tive paths toward long-term suc­cess. Fos­ter­ing sup­port­ive edu­ca­tion­al spaces is par­tic­u­lar­ly essen­tial for stu­dents con­sid­ered at high risk of jus­tice sys­tem involve­ment or those already nav­i­gat­ing that system.

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