How we go from the Schoolto Prison Pipeline to the Cradle to College Pipeline

Jonathan R. Douglas, PhD

▪Breakdown of Cradle to Prison Pipeline▪ School to Prison Pipeline

▪Breakdown of Cradle to Prison Pipeline▪ School to Prison Pipeline

▪Best practices in reducing the effects of pipeline

▪Breakdown of Cradle to Prison Pipeline▪ School to Prison Pipeline

▪Best practices in reducing the effects of pipeline

▪Moving from a deficit to strengths based approach

▪Breakdown of Cradle to Prison Pipeline▪ School to Prison Pipeline

▪Best practices in reducing the effects of pipeline

▪Moving from a deficit to strengths based approach

▪Steps for Cradle to College

▪Best practices in increasing effects of this pipeline

▪ Equality - treating everyone the same ▪ aims to promote fairness, but it can only work if

everyone starts from the same place and needs the same help

▪ Equity - giving everyone what they need to be successful

▪ Implicit Bias – judgment and/or behavior that results from subtle cognitive processes that often operate at a level below conscious awareness

▪ There is not a single reason behind this, it has been generations in the making within a young nation with a short term memory

▪ The intersection and culmination of poverty, racial disparities and a culture of punishment rather than prevention and early intervention working in tandem to drive intergenerational transmission and pushing individuals and families down the pipeline.

▪ The entry points to the cradle to prison pipeline are many and every further step into its realm magnifies its impact upon the life of a youth.

▪ School-based and out of school suspension

▪Concentrated poverty

▪Expulsion

▪Alternative education program placement

▪Court Charging

▪ 3,480 - Number of total days of out of school suspension K-12 was ▪ African Americans – 1,377▪ Special Education – 1,337

▪ 26.6% of students in out of school suspension were African American Males▪ They comprise only 9.4% of total enrollment

▪ Percentage of students that have 0-1 office referrals is 83% when calculated within all race-ethnicities▪ African Americans – 67.8%▪ Special Education students – 66.3%

▪69% of male students reach the FAST Assessment Benchmark in Kindergarten▪ 65% for AA and 57% for Latino males

▪By 1st grade this gap widens to 11% for AA and 12% for Latino

▪By 9th grade the gap between all male students and those of color is 61%▪ 41% for AA and 47% for Latino males

▪ In Iowa among all children, 15 percent or 109,000 live in poverty.▪ For Latino children, 3 in 10 (30.5 percent or 13,988) are poor.

▪ For Black children, 4 in 9 (44.5 percent or 10,683) are poor.

▪22% of children live in homes where their parents do not have secure employment

▪20 teen births per 1,000

▪$34,025: annual cost to house an inmate

▪Meanwhile, the state annually spends $10,313 to educate each K-12 student

▪How do those numbers compare to you?

▪ Reduce detention and incarceration by increasing preventive supports and services children need:

▪ Access to quality early childhood development and education services

▪ Prohibiting suspensions and expulsion across early childhood settings

▪ Comprehensive health and mental health coverage

▪ Improving teacher preparation and education with an eye toward cultural responsiveness and racial equity

▪ Engaging and educating parents, especially first time parents

▪ Using child development specialists alongside consistent doctor appointments to work with parents in assuring that milestones are met

▪ Expanding preschool to EVERYONE

▪ Taking down barriers and keeping supports strong

▪ Continue and increase work with non profits and community initiatives

▪ Starting the higher education conversation early

▪ Promote and increase the mentoring opportunities and availabilities

▪ School is about both academic and social knowledge and growth

▪ Promoting the importance and benefits of community service and school involvement

▪ Business involvement

▪ Thinking ahead for a career is not something that should start as an adult

▪ Properly preparing our students for college is more than simply graduating

▪ Teaching life skills (i.e. adulting)

▪ How to find campus services

▪ Adjustment to living away from home

▪ Maintaining school-life balance

▪ Establishing relationships

▪ Working with staff and faculty to increase retention and graduation rates

▪ Business relationships with higher education institutes

▪ According to the Annie E. Casey Foundation Iowa rates:

▪ # 4 in Economic Well Being

▪ # 3 in Health

▪ # 5 in Family and Community

▪ Yet, where we were previously one of the strongest we are now # 11 in education

▪ Do not accept complacency

▪Ten years of data on incarceration and crime trends show that higher youth incarcerated did not decrease crime

▪The most effective programs at reducing recidivism rates and promoting positive life outcomes for youth are administered in the community, outside of the criminal or juvenile justice systems.

▪Research shows that the brain does not fully develop to look like an adult brain until the individuals reaches their early 20s

▪ This is ever updating in our technological world and we can use this

▪ Availability and connectivity to higher education

▪ Trade schools, apprenticeships, comm. college and 4 year colleges

▪ Promoting meaningful family engagement strategies

▪ Investigate parent’s attitudes and expectations regarding educational attainment▪ Make sure they know their opinions matter

▪ Increase funding and expand access to in-school behavioral and emotional support services, including early childhood mental health consultation, or ECMHC

▪ Increasing funding for the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program, or MIECHV

▪ Require co-parenting classes after divorce

▪ It may seem small but can have big impacts

▪ Increase Restorative Justice programming

▪ Giving children and families a second chance

▪ K-16 funding

▪ State return to funding levels according to economic and inflationary standards

▪We cannot allow fear to drive our decisions for the youth and future of our community, state and country.

▪Those who would give up Liberty, to purchase a temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. ▪Ben Franklin, 1755