Key Issues >> Disability
Disability and Discipline
School-to-prison pipeline issues impacting students with disabilities
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In the News
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Do Protocols for School Safety Infringe Upon Disability Rights?, Hechinger Report, 2022
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When Your Disability Gets You Sent Home from School, Hechinger Report, 2022
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A Mom Takes Action after Her 5-year-old Was Put in A Chokehold at School, NBC News, 2021
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School Lockdown Drills Pose Particular Challenges (And Risks) for Students with Disabilities, Child Trends, 2020
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The Haunting Reality of Discrimination in School Discipline Education Week, 2019
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Handcuffed in Denver in the Fifth Grade: 'Whenever I Shut My Eye, I Saw the Cuffs Chalkbeat, 2019
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Criminalizing Disability: Special Needs Kids Who Don’t Get Help in School are Ending Up in Jail, Alamagordo Daily News, 2019
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Black Students and Students with Disabilities Remain More Likely to Receive Out-of-school Suspensions, Despite Overall Declines, Childtrends, 2019
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Catching Up on a Federal Rule Involving Bias in Special Education, Education Week, 2019
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Children Cruelly Handcuffed Win Big Settlement Against the Police in Kentucky, ACLU, 2018
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ACLU Sues Flint Police for Handcuffing Seven-Year-Old Boy with Disabilities​, ACLU of Michigan, 2018
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Students with Disabilities Are More Likely to Be Restrained or Arrested at School, The Mighty, 2018
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How Washington Winks at Violent Discipline of Special Needs Kids, Politico, 2017
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Excessive Force’: Judge Rules in Favor of Children Who Were Handcuffed at School, Washington Post, 2017
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Kids in Cuffs: Why Handcuff a Student With a Disability, NBC News, 2017
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Lawsuit Alleges State Failing Flint Special Education Kids, The Detroit News, 2018
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Why Disabled Youth Are More at Risk of Being Incarcerated, TeenVogue, 2017
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Why Are We Criminalizing Behavior of Children with Disabilities?, Washington Post, 2017
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Lawsuit: Kenton County Deputy Sheriff Shackled two Elementary Students Who Had Disabilities, also learn more about the case here and watch a video, 2015
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Why Schools Over-Discipline Children with Disabilities, The Atlantic, 2015
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Pipeline to Prison: Special Education Too Often Leads to Jail for Thousands of American Children, The Hechinger Report, 2014
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Race, Disability and the School-to-Prison Pipeline, Colorlines, 2014
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Reports
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Significant Disproportionality in Special Education: Current Trends and Actions for Impact, National Council on Learning Disabilities, 2023
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Ignored, Punished, and Underserved: Understanding and Addressing Disparities in Education Experiences and Outcomes for Black Children with Disabilities, Bellwether, 2022
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Disabling Inequity: The Urgent Need for Race-Conscious Resource Remedies, Center for Civil Rights Remedies at the Civil Rights Project at UCLA, 2021
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Policing and Racial Injustice: A Disability Rights Perspective - Impacts and Solutions, Disability Rights Ohio, 2020
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Disabling Punishment: The Need for Remedies to the Disparate Loss of Instruction Experienced by Black Students with Disabilities, The Center for Civil Rights Remedies at the UCLA Civil Rights Project, 2018
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Suspensions are Not Support: The Disciplining of Preschoolers with Disabilities, Center for American Progress, 2018
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Let Her Learn: Stopping School Pushout for Girls with Disabilities, National Women's Law Center, 2017
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Breaking the School-to-Prison Pipeline for Students with Disabilities, National Council on Disability, 2015
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Justice-Involved Youth with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities: A Call to Action for the Juvenile Justice Community, The Arc’s National Center on Criminal Justice and Disability, 2015
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Factsheets and Multimedia
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Glossary of IDEA Terms, The Equity Project at Indiana University
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Students with Disabilities & the Juvenile Justice System: What Parents Need to Know, Pacer Center, 2013
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5 Things to Know about Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Special Education, ChildTrends, 2017
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