South Bend Community School Corp. officials have recently taken steps to reduce the overall number of students put out of class for behavioral issues, as well as to correct practices that have caused a disparate number of African-American students to be disciplined.
For the first time in years, the board approved a new student code of conduct. And, a culturally sensitive Positive Behavior Interventions and Support program is now in its second year at all of the district’s high schools.
Still, last school year, black students received 62 percent of all incidents of out-of-school suspensions though they comprise just 34 percent of South Bend schools’ enrollment.
Indiana as a whole is among states that report a disproportionate number of suspensions between black students and white students.
Now, state lawmakers are taking up the issue of discipline disparities. And community members from South Bend have gotten in on the conversation.
House Bill 1287, legislation that would require schools to establish an evidence-based plan for improving student behavior and discipline, as well as report data related to disciplinary and law enforcement action in schools and for the state to work with schools to correct those disparities, was discussed in a four-hour meeting at the Statehouse last month.
Rep. Greg Porter, D-Indianapolis, introduced the legislation at the end of the last session.
He said via phone last week the issue of discipline disparities in school is one that affects the entire state, not just urban areas.
Fixing the problem, he said, will require resources, but it is an investment in students and communities.
“How much does it cost,” he said, “for a student to drop out of school, be ushered out of school, to be on welfare, incarcerated?”
Regina Williams-Preston, a member of South Bend schools’ special education support team, and Debra Turner, a South Bend resident who has been vocal on the issue of police ticketing of South Bend students, were among the dozen or so people who testified before the Interim Study Committee on Education.