Thursday, August 9, 2012

Obviously Not Working


I had no idea when I started reading an article from the New York Times titled, "Disabled Students Said to Be Almost Twice as Likely to Be Suspended" that I would see statistics from my school district here in Virginia.

But there we were - Henrico County, Virginia - in all our splendor. According to the article, "In some districts, black male students with disabilities were suspended at a strikingly high rate. In Henrico County Public Schools in Virginia, the report’s authors found that close to 92 percent of all black males with disabilities had been suspended one or more times during 2009-2010."

I knew that my district has some issues relating to the education of children with special needs. Heck, I've filed two complaints and been to due process myself. But because my children have never had any major behavior problems while in school, I haven't heard about all the suspensions.

Perhaps it's time for my school district, and apparently a whole lot of other school districts, to find another solution. Suspension does not appear to be working at all....

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