FFLIC

Winner of the 2009 Effies Community Advocate Award for effective persistence in providing a necessary voice for constructive change.

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Families and Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children URL: www.fflic.org;

Contact: Gina B. Womack, Director gwomack@fflic.org (504)522-5437, ext. 272

The Problem : Our children are being pushed out of school and into the prison system. The New Orleans school system, since integration, has been a two-tiered and racially divided system with one set of standards, expectations, and resources for the “haves” and a very different set for the “have-nots.” Post Katrina, New Orleans has been the petri dish in a great national experiment in public education. The state takeover of the local school district and the chartering of the majority of schools peaked national interest and the Recovery School District (RSD) continues its work to overhaul the city’s education of its children using this new philosophy and methodology. However, the underbelly of this new system is that those who were neglected by the system pre-Katrina, those who attend local schools and not charters, are being even further left behind; the gap between the haves and the have-nots has never been more pronounced.

In fact, the poorest children in the city, and specifically those with special needs, with life, cognitive, and behavioral challenges, are systematically being pushed out of school, into alternative schools, and into prison and detention through the over-use of suspensions, expulsions, and school-based arrests. Instead of increased support and evidence-based solutions, teachers and schools who are overburdened and under resourced use expulsions, arrests, and alternative (and “transitional”) school referrals to rid their classrooms of “unwanted” children, sending them to the proven failures of alternative schools and the city’s juvenile detention center. These ”push out” of kids is what FFLIC calls the School-to-Prison Pipeline. The result of this system failure is that a large number of poor African American children in crisis continue to be funneled into a system which criminalizes them and tracks them for failure, treating their families as part of the problem, not the solution.

FFLIC has been working and advocating for over 2 years with parents whose children face expulsion from RSD schools and has seen the negative effects of the current system. Children are regularly expelled for ridiculous code violations such as wearing the wrong colored jacket, bringing a cell phone to school (not using it, just having it), and chewing gum. Even those parents who manage to successfully defend their child against expulsion find themselves struggling with how to help him/her catch up on the 5-6 weeks of missed schooling while they waited for the hearing where they could make their case. FFLIC has heard reports from school staff and parents that young people are sometimes “targeted” for expulsion by school officials because their test scores are low and the school feels their ranking would be higher without them. This is a blatant abuse of expulsion power and shirking of a school’s responsibility to teach allof its children. Clearly, this method of discipline and education is badly in need of change.

The Solution: Positive Behavioral Support & Parent Participation: Back in 2003, FFLIC, along with various community organizations, fought to have a better discipline plan put into place in Louisiana ’s Schools. As a part of the Juvenile Justice Reform Act of 2003, which FFLIC helped to pass, the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) approved the Model Master Plan, a comprehensive school discipline plan that includes efforts for keeping kids in school by using alternatives to suspensions and expulsions. An evidence based strategy known as Positive Behavioral Support (PBS) was emphasized in the plan and though there was a great deal of excitement when it was developed, it is evident that it is not being implemented. And there is currently no state or local accountability system in place for the implementation of school wide positive behavior support.

PBS, when used correctly has proven to greatly reduce the number of young people expelled and pushed out of the classroom while simultaneously having positive affects on classroom atmosphere and discipline. As an extension of our work with developing parents and gaining policy wins, FFLIC will be working to build and organize active parent councils in four of the RSD’s schools with high expulsion rates. Each council will be led or coordinated by a parent liaison identified by FFLIC and trained extensively in the PBS model as well as organizing, facilitation, and the School to Prison Pipeline framework. Each parent liaison will collaborate with school officials to integrate parents more meaningfully into the school and successfully implement PBS, thereby decreasing the number of students who are expelled and/or pushed out of school.

FFLIC has a very good working relationship with Paul Pastorek, Louisiana ’s Superintendent of Education and also Paul Vallas, the Recovery School District ’s Superintendent and is coordinating with both to identify those schools with high expulsion rates and, openness to proper implementation of PBS, and to develop and evaluate the program. While FFLIC feels it is very important to maintain independence and be accountable first and foremost to our youth and parents, we have also learned that partnering with those forces within the system who share our interest in success for all children.

FFLIC has been working to transform the statewide and local juvenile justice system and stop the School to Prison Pipeline for many years and has had a great deal of success. For example, FFLIC, along with our allies has had success in: Passing the Juvenile Justice Reform Act of 2003 – committing Louisiana to closing the notoriously brutal juvenile prison in Tallulah, Louisiana and reducing the number of youths in secure care from close to 2000 in the year 2000 to just over 500 in 2009; Reducing the numbers of security guards in New Orleans public schools by 50 percent in 2008, and successfully training school personnel including guards, teachers, and administrators about the School to Prison Pipeline and its effects; Working with school system officials to develop a Reformed School Discipline Code with a safety and security plan that limits and specifies the type of offenses for which children can be suspended or expelled. Under this new code, expulsions have dropped significantly; Compelling the RSD to hire a School Climate and Safety Executive to oversee the comprehensive school safety and security plan and ensure a reduction of security guard abuse and successfully utilizing media in our fundraising efforts by producing a documentary with our members on the school to prison pipeline.

As our past victories indicate, FFLIC believes in action and in involving parents in each and every step of the processes which involve and affect their children’s lives. FFLIC knows how to research and analyze policy. We know how to outreach to parents, build successful parent advisory and action groups, and use popular education to train parents in advocacy and organizing skills. Over the last 9 years, FFLIC has developed a successful methodology of transformative organizing by which we work closely with individual community members to do real and deep leadership development and also work collectively with ally groups and to build projects and campaigns that keep parents at the center.