Decades of expanding police presence in schools has not made schools safer and has disrupted the education of too many young people. Students of color, LGBTQ, and students with disabilities are disproportionately impacted by disparities in discipline and arrested by police in schools, which is known as the school-to-prison pipeline.
Classrooms should be safe places to learn, and counselors and mental health staff lead to better educational outcomes for students. Over years of advocacy, a national movement has grown calling on us all to redirect the resources offered to law enforcement in schools toward services that would support the wellbeing of students. It’s an important step in ending the racial inequities in our education system.
People in Oakland, Denver, Portland, Minneapolis, Alexandria, Milwaukee and other cities across the country have organized to take police out of schools and implement proven alternatives.
We can help bring this vision to life by encouraging elected officials to support the Counseling Not Criminalization in Schools Act, which would prohibit the use of federal funds to increase police presence in schools and instead provide $5 billion in new grant funding to help schools hire more counselors, social workers, and other behavioral health personnel and implement services in schools that create positive and safe climates for all students.
Urge relevant committee chairs to support this legislation today!