One local group is offering up alternatives to suspending kids from school and calling for changes in the state.
Nonprofit Children's Agenda researched suspensions for young children to measure effectiveness, and any potential alternatives. Their report found suspensions are not handed out equally, are ineffective, and harmful to students.
The research found 84% of Monroe County parents and 62% of early childhood and elementary educators surveyed actually support eliminating suspensions in most cases for students grade 3 and below.
"Suspensions and expulsions are harmful and ineffective as a discipline practice,” Ramonn Scanlon, education policy director at The Children's Agenda, said. “A wide body of research shows that suspensions and expulsions lead to students having less trust and identification with their school, lower reading and math scores, lower rates of high school graduation and completion and most troublingly, increased encounters with the criminal justice system and incarceration."
The group is calling on state officials to pass the Solutions Not Suspensions Bill and create alternatives.
It's proposing positive behavior interventions and supports, and social and emotional learning.