While some school districts, education officials, and policymakers have acknowledged the need to address Rhode Island’s suspension problem, today’s report finds that much still needs to be done to address the persistent over-suspensions of even the youngest students. Among the report’s findings for the 2014-2015 school year:
The report comes on the heels of the Rhode Island General Assembly’s near-approval this year of legislation to limit the use of suspensions to only those situations in which a child poses a serious physical risk, or when the student is disruptive and other methods to address his or her conduct have failed. The ACLU recommended that the General Assembly enact this legislation as soon as it convenes for its 2016 session.
Among its other recommendations, the report called on the Rhode Island Department of Education to work with districts to determine appropriate solutions for high suspension rates, and for school districts to work with the community to investigate alternative disciplinary methods. The ACLU also reminded parents of their right to appeal suspensions that they feel have been unfairly imposed.
Hillary Davis, ACLU of RI policy associate and the report’s author, said today: “Rhode Island’s children with disabilities and children of color have for too long borne the brunt of a system over-reliant on removing children from the classroom rather than correcting their behavior. The last school year was no exception. Our children deserve the opportunity to learn from their mistakes rather than potentially face a lifetime of severe consequences. Earlier this year, the General Assembly stood poised to make Rhode Island a leader in protecting children from the over-reliance on suspensions. We hope that swift action when the General Assembly reconvenes in January ensures that Rhode Island’s children will no longer find themselves cast out of school because of a bad day.”
A copy of the report is available here.
Previous ACLU of RI reports on school suspensions are available here.
[From an American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island press release]
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The local agencies named so far, and I should stress that the accuracy of this data has not been confirmed, (though at least one celebrity, Josh Duggar, has been outed with what looks like a high degree of confidence,) include the Rhode Island State Police, the Rhode Island State Attorney General’s Office, the Rhode Island Department of Education, three accounts from the Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals (formerly the Rhode Island Department of Mental Health, Retardation & Hospitals) and the official government site of Narragansett, RI.
Ashley Madison is an online dating service, headquartered in Canada, aimed at people who are married or in committed relationships. Its slogan is “Life is short. Have an affair.” Hackers stole the data and demanded that the site be shut down, or the data would be released. The released data, according to experts consulted by the , appears to be real.
This might have been a purely prurient story of no real relevance, the private lives of individuals should remain just that, private. However, the use of government email accounts makes this of interest to voters. Should government workers be using their work emails to potentially cheat on their spouses?
We’ll see what happens as this story unfolds.
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