children out of school in america - University of Tennessee Digital ...

needed to improve and unify state censuses of
school-age children in and out of school; and provide
standard definitions of terms and classifications
and procedures for maintaining current and accurate
information on children out of school. Specific forms
of school disciplinary exclusions should be classified
and defined as should the classifications of children
with special needs. HEW should also work with
other federal agencies, particularly the United States
Bureau of the Census, to provide technical help to
states in designing and implementing censuses, incidence
estimates and model surveys.
On June 17, 1974 we forwarded a detailed letter
to Congressman Carl D. Perkins, Chairman of the
House Commitee on Education and Labor, setting
out specific gaps in present federal education data
collection and suggesting specific improvements. See
Appendix W. On April 12, 1974 we sent OCR Director
Peter Holmes a second letter detailing changes
needed in Q,CR's discipline and special needs forms.
See Appendix Q for this letter and sample OCR
forms.
Appropriate safeguards to protect children's and
parents' rights to privacy and confidentiality should
be included in all data collection procedures.
State and Local Governments
I. Suspension of students from school should be
stopped. State and local school officials should immediately
examine their school discipline policies
and practices in light of the interests of children and
of good educational sense. T!;Ie use of expulsion,
suspension and other disciplinary exclusions should
be curtailed except where serious danger of harm
to person or property exists. Fair hearings in these
latter emergency cases should be held prior to or
within 24 hours of the exclusion. Exclusion should
last only as long as the danger persists. In-school
alternatives should be devised to keep children with
discipline problems in scqool. Alternative educational
approaches should also be more fully explored
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and implemented to avoid many of the behavior
problems that now result in exclusion.
2. State educational officials should provide (I)
model discipline codes and (2) technical assistance
to aid local districts revising discipline policies. To
ensure enforcement, states should adopt regular local
district reporting requirements whose results are used
in furtherance of an established state goal for school
attendance by all children.
3. State and local compliance efforts should be
undertaken to ensure that racial discrimination is
eliminated from school discipline and special education
placement processes. Local education officials
should provide leadership in requesting all the help
necessary from their legislatures or elsewhere to
ensure their ability to meet the needs of all children.
4. School officials should undertake specific and
continuing outreach efforts to involve parents in important
school decisions affecting their children.
These include disciplinary and other exclusions and
special education testing and placement.
Parents and Children
1. Parents and children must inform themselves
about and involve themselves in challenging school
policies which exclude children from school. They
should (I) question all school decisions which result
in exclusion; (2) seek to work constructively with
school officials to resolve the problem threatening
exclusion; (3) keep careful records of all conversations
with school officials; and (4) where appropriate,
contact higher school officials, state and federal
governmental agencies and advocates who may
help.
2. Parents and children should seek to work
responsibly with school officials on policies and
practices in districts which keep children from attending
school. Only when we break down the
chasms that separate us one from the other, teacher
from parent, administrator from teacher, children
from adults, will the problems addressed here be
eliminated.