The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Michigan has been awarded a two-year, $390,000 W. K. Kellogg Foundation grant to reduce the number of students suspended and expelled and referred to criminal courts.
“Too often, at-risk children are lost to the educational system with no hope of acquiring the most basic set of skills to survive," said Kary L. Moss, executive director for the ACLU of Michigan about its work to reform the state education system.
"Failure to ensure equal opportunities and access to education creates new generations of Americans who are disadvantaged and cannot contribute to the state’s economic well-being."
Through the support of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Moss said, the ACLU will work to reduce the likelihood these children will end up with a criminal record rather than a high school diploma.
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation grant will allow the ACLU to continue to work on the problems documented in the 2009 report it released “Reclaiming Michigan’s Throwaway Kids: Students Trapped in the School-to-Prison Pipeline” that documented a trend amongst school districts to enforce severe disciplinary policies and practices that push children out of the classroom without regard for their future.
The group will address hard zero tolerance policies, lack of due process protections for children, and other problems that are inconsistent with the notion that every child can succeed and that safe, sustainable school communities depend on it.
In July, U.S. Department of Education and Justice Department launched a new initiative to improve school discipline procedures and end the "school to prison pipeline."
As part of the grant, the ACLU of Michigan plans to use the process of deliberative democracy with local communities to work with parents, students, teachers, school boards and school administrators to promote restorative justice as a guiding principle in school disciplinary policies and other reform efforts to reduce the number of children referred to law enforcement agencies.
Based in Detroit, the group with regional offices in Lansing and Grand Rapids, is supported entirely by private donations. Other foundation supporters include the Grand Rapids Community Foundation, Kresge Foundation, Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, U.S. Human Rights Fund, Atlantic Philanthropies, Arcus Foundation, among others.
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