Intent on interrupting the school-to-prison pipeline, San Mateo-Foster City School District officials welcomed fellow education leaders, nonprofit representatives and other key players to a workshop last Wednesday to discuss ways of uplifting all students regardless of background.
“If we think about all of our students as their behavior expressing a need, the ways in which we support our students really should be the same,” said Shara Watkins, president of the San Mateo-Foster City School District Board of Trustees. “It’s about how we are supporting our students and how we are ensuring that we are not perpetuating entry into this pipeline that we know is alive and well.”
Leading the event — titled “Community Convening: Dismantling the School-to-Prison Pipeline” and held Wednesday, Jan. 25 — alongside Watkins was Diego Ochoa, San Mateo-Foster City School District Board superintendent, and Kate Hiester, director of the San Francisco and San Mateo County division for Fresh Lifelines for Youth, a nonprofit focused on uplifting young people and disrupting the school-to-prison pipeline.
Together, the three walked event participants through how students, predominantly those of color and those from low-income households, have been mistreated and misunderstood in school, leading them to face harsher consequences than their peers and, eventually, become disillusioned with education.
They discussed how leaders can interrupt this cycle by building relationships, reframing school discipline by pulling students into problem-solving and faculty training and teaching, shifting policies, and reinvesting in the community and decarceration.
In breakout groups, participants discussed how to implement restorative practices, various ways to shift policy and rethinking public safety and shifting mindsets. Often, discussions came back to a key issue, how to get buy-in from all stakeholders including teachers and faculty, parents, students and other community leaders.
In the following years, the state restricted the reasons why students can be suspended, allowed suspension only as a last resort and recommended students be provided with other trauma-informed interventions instead. Meanwhile, the district reaffirmed its commitment to equity and later reallocated funds from its school resource officer program to hiring more counselors and social workers and other restorative practices.
The success of these initiatives, Ochoa said, is in the district’s falling suspension rates. In 2018, the district was suspending 17.2% of foster youth, 1.1% of homeless youth, 4.9% of Black youth and 3.3% of Pacific Islanders. The overall rate was 1.2%, according to the state education dashboard.
Rates ticked up in 2019, with 23.8% of foster youth, 3.6% of homeless youth, 6.7% of Black youth and 4.5% of Pacific Islanders being suspended at least once compared to the overall district rate of 1.6%.
By 2022, the district’s overall rate was similar to that of 2018 but most rates among subgroups had fallen substantially to 0% for foster youth, 2.4% among Black students, 0.9% among Pacific Islanders and 2.7% for homeless youth.
“We’re certainly not perfect but we’re growing and we’re learning,” Ochoa said.
Hiester said suspensions have a close link to a student’s future and whether they’ll fall into a path of incarceration. She said the first month after a suspension is when a student is most vulnerable, especially for students who have had less involvement with disciplinary or criminal systems.
Like those in education, San Mateo police Sgt. Tracey Unga said she doesn’t want to see students or young people taking up a life of crime. She oversees the department’s Youth Services Unit and participated in the event along with those in her unit because she said collaborating and having difficult discussions are imperative for finding solutions.
“As community members, it’s good for us to all come to the table and have these hard discussions,” Unga said. “Kids are going to make mistakes and it’s our responsibility as adults, as community leaders, to steer them in the right direction and make sure they don’t make the same mistake again. And to be honest, most kids don’t if you just wrap the right services around them and show them the way.”
Ligia Andrade Zúñiga, vice president of the San Mateo Union High School District Board of Trustees, was also in attendance and said she appreciated the event which she said helps foster new ideas.
Her district has also implemented equity initiatives, she noted, adding that she felt even more motivated to continue pushing forward the district’s equity vision.
“These types of events are important because they get people talking,” Andrade Zúñiga said. “It holds us all accountable for what we should be doing.”
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