Beyond Zero Tolerance: Discipline and Policing in Pennsylvania Public Schools (2015), is the only statewide analysis of school discipline for Pennsylvania. It examines school-administered discipline and school policing in the state’s 500 districts: who is impacted most by different forms of discipline and the policy issues pertaining to school policing. Pennsylvania Department of Education data used in the report can be downloaded
Every day, we hear from advocates, reporters, educators, and students asking questions about how to find the best resources on some aspect of school discipline and policing. Whether from an advocate preparing testimony for a school board meeting or a reporter digging into a story when an incident occurs, folks want to know how to get accurate and up-to-date information and analysis.
In crafting the site, we reviewed countless requests for information and documents that have come in, especially since the publication of our report on school discipline and policing in Pennsylvania, Beyond Zero Tolerance.
This site is the place to go to get up-to-date resources and commentary on how to keep young people in school and out of the justice system. It is loaded with presentations and sample materials, and to links to videos, podcasts, policy statements, research reports, and media stories. In a few cases, we have taken official data and produced simplified spreadsheets illustrating a trend.
While reforms have been implemented in a growing number of communities, the culture spawned by “zero tolerance” remains very much alive. Today, “zero tolerance” refers to the array of policies and practices that mandate or facilitate the removal of students from school under a broad range of circumstances, not principally (or just) in response to weapons violations. Therefore, our site is named “End Zero Tolerance.”
Additional features include:
- Q and A on school discipline and policing
- Using Data – a guide to how to obtain and use data, plus links to summaries of recent trends
- Policing in Schools – news and analysis plus information about students arrests and examples of policy reforms
- Special sections for educators and for advocates on how to implement reforms
- What’s New –a blog about recent developments and new resources
Whether you want to research the issues, or to learn about successful campaigns and local work to improve school communities, this site is a great place to start.