Coleman joins national rally for school discipline reform in Washington D.C.

On Monday March 24, students, parents and teachers from 13 states across the country rallied – as part of the national Dignity in Schools Campaign (DSC) – at the U.S. Capitol to release School Discipline Assessments that compare new federal School Discipline Guidance released in January with local school district policies in Wake County, NC and San Francisco, CA.  Coleman staff participated on a national planning committee for the gathering. 

DSC members also met with the White House Domestic Policy Council and the Department of Education to share experiences surrounding specific school discipline-related initiatives in their states, discuss the impacts of school discipline on students of color and students with disabilities, and call for reductions in the presence of law enforcement in schools. 

Read more about the Dignity In Schools national action and the School Discipline Assessments here.  

     Coleman Director of Civic Engagement, Kevine Boggess, speaking at DSC Press Conference

U.S. Dept. of Ed Releases National School Discipline Data 

For the first time in 15 years the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights released data from every public school in the nation, which confirms stark racial and gender disparities in suspension, expulsion, seclusion, physical restraint, arrests and referrals to law enforcement.  Among others, African American, American Indian, and Native Alaskan students, as well as African American girls specifically, and students with disabilities, disproportionately face some of the most extreme punishments.  For example, although African American students represent 18 percent of preschool enrollment, they make up 42 percent of preschool students suspended once, and 48 percent of the preschool students suspended more than once.

“This data collection shines a clear, unbiased light on places that are delivering on the promise of an equal education for every child and places where the largest gaps remain,” said U.S. Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan. “In all, it is clear that the United States has a great distance to go to meet our goal of providing opportunities for every student to succeed.”

Click here to see a summary of the U.S. Dept of Ed school discipline data.   

New Report to be Released on Gentrification in the Bay Area

 Causa Justa :: Just Cause (CJJC) has completed a new report “Development without Displacement: Resistance against Gentrification in the Bay Area” and will be releasing it at a public event on Monday April 7^th. The report digs in to the root causes of gentrification and displacement and calls for urgent policy changes and using a different paradigm of human development. As tenants in both San Francisco and Oakland reel under the highest rents in the nation, new development and investment is causing tremendous market pressures destabilizing everything from housing to health to political power.  Buy tickets for the release event in Oakland by clicking here.

New Toolkit: An Educator's Guide to Fostering Positive School Climate


"Restorative Practices: Fostering healthy Relationships & Promoting Positive Discipline in Schools," released by Advancement Project, the American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association and the National Opportunity to Learn Campaign, helps educators better understand what restorative practices are and how they foster safe learning environments. Download the Toolkit here!

"The New 'Separate and Unequal": Using California's Local Control Funding Formula to Dismantle the School-to-Prison Pipeline"

The Community Rights Campaign (CRC – a project of the Labor Community Strategy Center in L.A.) and the Black Organizing Project (based in Oakland) released a report that presents startling new data on the role of police officers in schools and the need to address this statewide problem within the new Local Control Funding Formula. Click here to check in out

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Coleman's E.D. Neva Walker, with Portland’s Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization Africa House, after her keynote address about ”Inside/Outside Strategies for Community and Government Partnerships for Racial Justice” at the Governing for Racial Equity 2014 Annual conference this week. 

Coleman Parent Organizer Ligia Montano testifying (as a member of the Children's Fund Community Coalition) at the SF Board of Supes Budget Committee hearing last week. We are calling for an increase in the Children's Fund, and a longer, more inclusive and coordinated planning process for the funding of children's services in SF. 

Coleman student leaders Mia and Jessica returning from their trip to Miami earlier this month for the Alliance for Education Justice annual convening. Coleman staff and leaders strategized with others around the country working on school to prison pipeline issues and presented a workshop on what it means to be a  youth leader in a national alliance.