Here's a shocking fact: 1 million students who start high school this year won't finish. In many cases, though, students aren't just "dropping out"; they're being pushed out by overly-punitive disciplinary policies and unsafe school environments. Now is a great time to get involved in the issue — Saturday marks the beginning of the Dignity in Schools Campaign's the National Week of Action on School Pushout (October 1-8).
Here's a shocking fact: 1 million students who start high school this year won't finish. In many cases, though, students aren't just "dropping out"; they're being pushed out by overly-punitive disciplinary policies and unsafe school environments. Now is a great time to get involved in the issue — Saturday marks the beginning of the Dignity in Schools Campaign's the National Week of Action on School Pushout (October 1-8).
What's happening? Students who are suspended, expelled, or arrested in school are more likely to fall behind and drop out. In addition, students who attend schools in which they feel unsafe may experience declining academic performance, skip school, and end up not finishing. Unfortunately, these practices disproportionately affect students of color, students with disabilities, and LGBT students, who experience much higher rates of discipline than other students. For example, African American students, including African American girls, are 3 times as likely as their white peers to be suspended and 3.5 times as likely to be expelled.
And many girls, particularly girls of color, are punished severely for very minor infractions. Remember that crazy story from Alabama of high school student who was sent to an alternative school for "drug use" after taking Motrin to relieve menstrual cramps? And in New York, a middle school student was arrested for writing "okay" on her desk. You heard right — ARRESTED! And don't forget the teenage girl in the South who was suspended from school for wearing a prom dress that school officials deemed too revealing; unlike the other girls disciplined for this, she did not agree to be paddled (yes, paddled!) so she got suspended instead. One study looking at disciplinary practices among middle schools in 18 of the country's largest school districts in the 2006-2007 school year found that suspension rates for Black girls were the second highest overall consistently higher than the rates for other groups of girls and for Hispanic or White boys. And Black girls had the highest percentage point growth in suspension rates of any group.
Many other factors contribute to school pushout and may affect girls differently, like sexual harassment , illegal discrimination against pregnant students, the challenges of managing school and parenting responsibilities without any support. This is significant, since nearly 3 in 10 girls become pregnant at least once before age 20. And for girls of color the rates are higher; approximately half of all Latinas and African American girls get pregnant at least once by age 20, rates that reflect the many barriers they face. In a nationwide survey, close to one-half of all females and one-third of males who didn't graduate said that becoming a parent played a role in their decisions to leave school.
What can you do? Encourage schools to be proactive and adopt promising practices to improving school climate so that all students have the opportunity to study in an environment that is conducive to learning, where they feel safe, supported, and motivated to do their best.
Get involved! Attend a DSC Week of Action event in your area. Learn more about school pushout with the DSC's fact sheets, and NWLC fact sheets on pregnant and parenting students and what a "successful, safe, and healthy" school would mean for girls. Sign the National Resolution for Ending School Pushout.