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Resisting the Criminalization of Disabled Students in Schools

BY: DISABILITY RIGHTS CALIFORNIA, EAST BAY COMMUNITY LAW CENTER, AND BLACK ORGANIZING PROJECT

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH: OAKLAND UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT, OFFICE OF EQUITY

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�ACCESS CHECK-IN

WE WORK TOGETHER FOR GREATER ACCESS.

THE WORK OF ACCESS IS

NEVER FINISHED.

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Your Facilitation Team

Disability Rights California	East Bay Community Law Center	Black Organizing Project	Office of Equity, Oakland Unified School District
Gabriela Torres, Managing Attorney Oscar Lopez, Senior Attorney Leslie Napper, Senior Advocate Karla Loaiza, Senior Advocate Amanda Miller, Staff Attorney	Ellen Ivens-Duran, Staff Attorney/Clinical Supervisor Whitney Rubenstein, Director of Social Work/Staff Attorney	Ebony Sinnamon-Johnson, Black Sanctuary Organizer	Cintya Molina, LCAP Engagement Program Manager Samantha Fenwick, Family Engagement Specialist Jamal Muhammad, Targeted Strategies Specialist

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Sign-In Sheet for OUSD Staff

To track your hours, use the following time sheet:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iqmcy1lMYek5mwpIG6FqSAxCHmA3hbQ-swVNbVZGVAA/edit

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Framing: Why We're here for Part 2

In Part 1 we learned:

That disabled students are more likely to be disciplined compared to non-disabled peers.
We walked through the historical OUSD policies that supported the exclusionary discipline of disabled students.
We learned that students of color who are disabled are more likely to be expelled than other disabled peers.

Link to Slides from Part 1: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kcm1-QsYENbttu2C_5bsM9UV59W2C-hZ/view?usp=sharing

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Framing: Why We're here for Part 2

Why? Disabilities can be Invisible.

Perception of Behavior	Manifestation of Disability
She never turns in her assignments and has attitude about it. She just does what she wants and walks around the classroom all the time. He threw a laptop at me. His classmates don’t like him because he is lazy and doesn’t pull his weight in group work.	She has severe executive functioning skill deficits for her age and her own inability to complete tasks embarrasses her. She has unmet sensory needs. His behavior intervention plan says he will enter fight or flight mode when overwhelmed and physically stopped. You stood in his way. He has pervasive social and communication challenges that impact his ability to relate to and work with others.

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Q&A

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DRC’s Disability Justice Advocacy

DRC’s Mission

DRC works to create a world where all people with disabilities have power and are treated with dignity and respect by being included in their communities, afforded the same opportunities as people without disabilities, and respected to make their own decisions.

Education Advocacy

To ensure equal access to education, dismantle the school to prison pipeline, eliminate the use of restraint, seclusion and segregated placements, reform the juvenile justice system and advance community-based mental health and behavioral services

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Ableism in Schools

"Ableism is connected to all of our struggles because it undergirds notions of whose bodies are considered valuable, desirable, and disposable." Mia Mingus

Valuable 🡪

Desirable 🡪

Disposable 🡪

“high achiever”
“a scholar”
“college bound”
“has potential”

A “good” student
“applies” themselves
“motivated”
Comes from a “good” family

A “problem” student
“defiant” or “oppositional”
A “distraction” to other students
“inimical to the welfare of others”

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DRC’s Disability Justice Advocacy

The What

Challenging individual and systemic practices that treat disabled students as lacking value, undesirable, or disposable:

Equal access to education (modifications, accommodations, expectations)
Freedom from the use of restraints, seclusion and segregation
Trauma-informed, culturally congruent services to meet the needs of students and their families
Freedom from the school-to-prison pipeline

The How

We use various legal tactics to achieve these ends, including:

Direct representation of individual clients
Impact litigation / class actions
Movement Lawyering
Legislation
Community Outreach and Training

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Direct Representation: “Aaron”

Aaron, 3^rd grader, lived with two grandparents in Sacramento

PK

Behavior problems – struggled with processing verbal information, instructions from adults; resisted multi - step tasks
Outside diagnosis: ADHD

K -2

Academics suffered; behavior increased
Suspensions started in 1^st grade, biweekly, placed on half-day schedule
Guardians continued to advocate for services, only offered Student Study/Success Team (SST)
End of School Year, doctor intervened and requested assessment

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Direct Representation: “Aaron” continued

Assessment:

Findings: impulsivity, hyperactivity, adaptive skills, difficulty with transitions, depressive symptoms
NOT eligible for special education, has “conduct disorder”
Placed on a “behavior contract”
Behavior does not change

DRC files due process complaint

Failure to identify and assess students with disabilities
Failure to provide services and “free and appropriate education”
Unlawful exclusion through school discipline

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Black Parallel School Board et al. v. Sacramento City School District

District was failing to identify and assess disabled students to understand education needs

Disabled Black students were being suspended at a rate more than any other CA school district

One half of disabled students were in segregated settings

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The Power of OUSD & Partnerships with Community

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Legislation Assembly Bill 420 (2014)

(1) Prohibits suspensions for willful defiance for students in TK through 3rd grade.

(2) Prohibits expulsions for willful defiance for all students (TK-12).

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OUSD Board Policy 5144.1 (2015)

“Effective July 1, 2016, no student enrolled in grades T-Kindergarten through twelve (TK-12) grades may be suspended or expelled for disrupting school activities or willfully defying the authority of school personnel.”

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Senate Bill 274 (2023)

“This bill would remove disrupting school activities or otherwise willfully defying the valid authority of supervisors, teachers, administrators, school officials, or other school personnel engaged in the performance of their duties from the list of acts for which a pupil, regardless of their grade of enrollment, may be suspended or recommended for expulsion.”

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OUSD Administrative Regulation 5144.1(2015)

“Expulsion not permitted for first offense of possession of one ounce of marijuana.”

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Assembly Bill 1323 (2023)

Eliminates MANDATORY notifications to law enforcement for possession of controlled substances like marijuana.
Eliminates MANDATORY notifications to law enforcement for “willful disturbance” of school activities.

Now, almost 8 years later, Assemblymember Ash Kalra has introduced a bill that would eliminate MANDATORY notifications of law enforcement for possession of controlled substances, like marijuana. The bill would also eliminate MANDATORY notifications to law enforcement for “willful disturbance” of school activities. To be clear, this law would not prohibit staff from calling law enforcement, but would give staff more discretion to use alternatives like referrals to mental health or substance use counseling.

As you can see, OUSD can go in a couple of different directions. It can pass policies that are exclusionary and discriminatory, or it can work with community to pass policies that serve as models for the rest of the state. Right now, OUSD is at another critical decision point, so I’m going to pass it to Ebony for the rest of this part of the training.

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Black Organizing Project:

The GFR People’s Budget

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Q&A

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Supporting Disabled Students Who are Struggling: IEP Advocacy

Classroom teachers and school site staff CAN and SHOULD know the details of a student’s IEP
IEPs are living documents and can be amended and updated as the needs of students shift
Teachers can request IEP meetings
Advocate for what you think a student needs, not just what you know your school can provide

Increased Specialized Academic Instruction (SAI), one-to-one aide, counseling, change in educational placement

Advocate outside of IEP meetings and document requests for support and student needs

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Preventing Pushout: IEP Advocacy

Classroom teachers and school site staff CAN and SHOULD be familiar with a student’s IEP

Teachers can request IEP meetings

At IEP meetings advocate for what you think a student needs to be successful, not just what you know your school can provide

Advocate outside of IEP meetings by asking for and documenting requests for additional student supports and services

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Disrupting the Expulsion Process:

MDR Advocacy

Show up at the MDR in support of your student and their family
Push the IEP Team to look at the student’s entire educational record, including patterns in behavior and teacher observation
Share your own observations of the student
Speak up and be accountable if an IEP is not being implemented with fidelity

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Helping students during the expulsion (DHP) process

Check in with student/family while the student is out on extended suspension (pre-hearing)

Write a letter of support and send to student/family or counsel

If called as a witness, feel free to give appropriate context or share positive things about the young person facing expulsion

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The 30,000 foot view

Teachers and school site staff are important allies and supporters for students facing school pushout

Keep doing what you are doing! Show up for your students, even if you are not invited. Share positive stories and traits, even if you are only asked for negative information. Ask for the things you need, even if you think or know you may not be able to get them.

THANK YOU!

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Q&A

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Modeling: Resisting Criminalization, Valuing Disabled Students

What We Aim to Resist	What We Aim to Promote
Pathologizing (problem inside student) Surveillance Punishment Containment Hyper-Labeling Stigmatizing (of student, of their families) Silencing Ostracizing or Conditional Belonging Suspension, Expulsion	Access, Accessibility, Allyship Choice, Autonomy Collaborative Problem-Solving Restorative Justice Mobility (spatial, social) Individuality Presumed Competence, Growth Positive (Disability, Racial, . . .) Identity Listening, Communication Interdependence, Unconditional Belonging

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Small Group Discussion Questions �(35 minutes)

When/how have you witnessed a disabled student(s) treated as undesirable or disposable because their appearance, behavior, or performance did not conform to an ableist norm? How did that treatment work to criminalize them?
What would you want to know or do before suspending or expelling a disabled student? What questions would you ask? What steps would you take?

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Report Back

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Wrap-Up

See you Monday, March 20^th, 4:00-6:00 for Part 3 of the OUSD Disability Justice Series:

“Naming Disability – The Power of Definitions and Language Choice”

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DRC Contact Information

Gabriela Torres: Gabriela.Torres@disabilityrightsca.org
Karla Loaiza: Karla.Loaiza@disabilityrightsca.org
Oscar Lopez: Oscar.Lopez@disabilityrightsca.org
Leslie Napper: Leslie.Napper@disabiityrightsca.org
Amanda Miller: Amanda.Miller@disabilityrightsca.org
Ellen Ivens-Duran: eivensduran@ebclc.org
Whitney Rubenstein: wrubenstein@ebclc.org
Black Organizing Project: info@blackorganizingproject.org

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Resources

DRC’s Education Bills for this Legislative Cycle, including SB 274 and AB 1323: https://ctweb.capitoltrack.com/public/publish.aspx?session=23&id=bc97afbd-f869-48bd-bcd9-9d1a8ab80b96
Black Parallel School Board et al. v. Sacramento City Unified School District: https://www.disabilityrightsca.org/cases/black-parallel-school-board-et-al-v-sacramento-city-unified-school-district
How Educators Secretly Remove Students With Disabilities From School, New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/09/us/students-disabilities-informal-removal.html?smid=em-share
The GFR People’s Budget: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1A_gdF36d3NBKZqMbHasoqFEFVW1gzHV_QVGmVF7tJ4c/edit?usp=sharing

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Sign-In Sheet for OUSD Staff

To track your hours, use the following time sheet:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iqmcy1lMYek5mwpIG6FqSAxCHmA3hbQ-swVNbVZGVAA/edit