Putting a cold financial price tag on the impact of school discipline practices, researchers have calculated that a 10th-grade California student who drops out because of suspension could end up costing the public $755,000 in lost tax revenue and increased health care and criminal justice expenses over the life of the student, according to a report released Thursday by the UCLA Center for Civil Rights Remedies.
The researchers amalgamated decades of studies to produce what they said was the first report to isolate the role of suspensions in increasing dropout rates and to quantify the economic cost of suspending students on a national level and in two states, California and Florida.
“If schools knew the real costs associated with suspension, its use might not have become so pervasive,” said the report, which was co-authored by Russell Rumberger of UC Santa Barbara and Daniel Losen of UCLA.
By adding specific economic costs to the state and national conversation about school discipline practices, the authors said they hoped their findings would mobilize investments in alternatives to suspending students. Manuel Criollo, director of organizing for The Labor/Community Strategy Center in Los Angeles, which works with students in the Los Angeles Unified School District, said significant investments were needed if schools are going to make the shift from “zero tolerance” – automatic suspensions for certain behaviors – to a culture in which students, teachers and parents address the root causes of behavior conflicts.
“We’ve probably invested $10 million in restorative justice and school climate in the district, compared to $60 million for school police and $30 million on campus aides,” Criollo said. “For this year’s budget battle, a lot of us are supporting the school climate educational justice fund – we want $60 million.”
To continue reading this article by Jane Meredith Adams, go to: https://edsource.org/2016/cost...-report-finds/565111
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