Holding Denver Public Schools' Feet to the Fire!

Organizing to pass the Denver Public Schools new dicipline policy was a major victory for us and a significant milestone in Ending the School to Jail Track.

If fully implemented, the new Denver Public Schools discipline policy:

  • Ends the School to Jail Track in Denver;
  • Respects students’ right to a quality education by limiting the
    use out-of-school suspensions, expulsions and police tickets
  • Supports Restorative Justice;
  • Treats all students and parents with dignity and respect; and
  • Increases attendance, graduation and college enrollment rate.

 

However, winning reforms is only half the battle...Holding them accountable is another.

Organizing to pass the new discipline policies was just one part of our campaign to End the School to Jail Track in Denver. We are now in phase II: holding the District accountable for full and uniform implementation of the new policies. Our current School-to-Jail Accountability Campaign is student-led and includes:

  1. Student-led Know Your Rights Assemblies to educate students and school staff about the new discipline policies and build a student base to call for implementation;
  2. A student-conducted survey to evaluate the effectiveness of the new policies;
  3. Community-developed oversight and design of teacher trainings and district data collection, tracking and reporting practices; and
  4. An accountability report to highlight the progress and shortfalls of District implementation.

We remain vigilant in holding Denver Public Schools and the Denver Police Department accountable for ending racial disparities in school displine through participatory research, accountability sessions, leadership development and ongoing youth and community organizing.

Over this past academic year (2010-2011), Jovenes Unidos members have educated over 256,000 people through radio, flyers and face-to-face community outreach and presentations on Denver's dicipline policy and the need to organize across the city and state to End the School to Jail Track.

 


Dowload our Racial Disparities Toolkit materials for ideas on how to
organize to expose and end racial disparities in discipline - click on the
following documents:

 

Check out our other Ending the School to Jail Track materials!

To get involved with the accountability phase of our Ending the School-to-Jail Track campaign, contact Lalo Montoya at (303) 458-6545 or lalo@padresunidos.org.