THE SOLUTIONS NOT SUSPENSIONS ACT
Across New York, Black and Latinx students as well as students with disabilities are suspended at disproportionately high rates. In NYC, Black students are 5 times more likely to get suspended than their white counterparts.
Suspended students are 3x more likely to drop out than peers who have never been suspended. Young people who drop out of school are 3x more likely to end up in juvenile justice system within a year.
The Solutions Not Suspensions Act (A.5197/S.7198) will end the reliance of suspensions as the default way to discipline students and establish a framework to instead use proven restorative approaches to discipline.
Students will be held accountable for their behaviors through age appropriate, graduated, and proportionate restorative and trauma-informed interventions. These techniques help kids learn from mistakes and remain in the classroom learning.
The legislation would:
● Require school codes of conduct to include restorative approaches to discipline, to proactively foster a school community based on cooperation, communication, trust, and respect
● Limit the use of suspensions for students in Kindergarten through 3rd grade to only the most serious behavior
● Shorten the maximum length of suspension from 180 to 20 school days
● Require that students who are suspended receive academic instruction, and the opportunity to earn credit, complete assignments, and take exams.
The Solutions Not Suspensions Act would create uniform standards across the state that seek to reduce disparities and not exclude young people who make mistakes from learning. The bill makes necessary changes to the state legal code that would fundamentally reform how schools across the state approach discipline.