Texas Appleseed, a public interest law center, released a report in April that says minority and special education students are overrepresented in expulsions from Texas public schools, particularly for noncriminal conduct violations. The report, entitled "Texas' School-to-Prison Pipeline: School Expulsion - On the Path from Lockout to Lockup," stated that of the 100,000 students sent to district Disciplinary Alternative Education Programs (DAEPs) annually only 8,202 were expelled from public schools in 2008-09. However, the report found that the expulsion rates of minority and special education children were disproportionate to their representation in the Texas student population.

Some of the major findings in the report were: 1) discretionary school expulsions outnumbered mandatory expulsions by two to one in 2008-09; 2) special education students make up only 10 percent of the student body statewide, but account for 21 percent of all expulsions, with minority students in this category three times more likely to be expelled; 3) expulsions for “serious or persistent misbehavior” or more minor violations in a DAEP account for more than a third of all expulsions statewide.

Texas Appleseed Legal Director Deborah Fowler believes being expelled from school increases students' chances of getting into the "school-to-prison pipeline." "In too many cases, expelling students for 'serious and persistent misbehavior' in a DAEP is introducing young people to the juvenile justice system when they have committed no crime - which is an extreme consequence for behavior that would not be an expellable offense in any other educational setting," according to Fowler.

The report says the majority of students are expelled to one of the state's 37 Juvenile Justice Alternative Education Programs (JJAEPs) operated by local juvenile boards and overseen by the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission. In counties without a JJAEP, students are expelled to the street. The majority of counties with a JJAEP are prosecuting "serious or persistent misbehavior" in the disciplinary alternative programs as a CINS offense (Conduct in Need of Supervision). Such prosecution places juveniles under court or probation oversight even though they have not committed a crime. "These students, who wouldn't even have been expelled for this behavior in their regular school, are coming under the jurisdiction of the court. This is the most obvious example of a disturbing trend toward criminalizing student misbehavior," says Fowler.

Texas Appleseed recommends "implementing school-wide positive behavior support programs" and "placing a statewide priority on increasing mental health resources for students in public schools." They propose that the Texas Education Agency monitor and enforce DAEP standards. They also recommend that the option for school districts to expel students for "serious or persistent misbehavior" be eliminated.

A survey of JJAEP administrators by Texas Appleseed found that they "recommend eliminating discretionary student expulsions to JJAEPs – particularly for 'serious or persistent misbehavior' – given the challenges of having to simultaneously address the needs of these students alongside those expelled to JJAEPs for major criminal offenses." The report concludes that "the lack of a statutory definition for 'serious or persistent misbehavior' accounts for the wide variation across Texas school districts in expelling students for this offense."

For more information on the report go to www.texasappleseed.net.