Suspensions and Minnesota Schools

Florida school officials keep arresting disabled kids for non-compliance, especially those of color. Now they're adding guns and promoting mental health stigma. #CultOfCompliancehttps://t.co/zkaX4TRueq

— David M. Perry (@Lollardfish) March 6, 2018

Yesterday, I wrote about a series of incidents in which disabled children, mostly non-white, whose stories of arrest and abuse in Florida schools have become national news. These stories pair with policies from DC that increase the criminalization in our schools, drive parents to private schools, where they have to surrender their rights. I made it clear it was a national issue, but focused on Florida because lawmakers were pushing more guns into schools and adding more mental health services. The latter are great, in theory, but doing so in the context of mass violence continues the false association of violence with mental illness. It's a tough read, I found (as did some readers), but I tried to make some connections visible around the #CultOfCompliance.

Late in the afternoon, then, I came across a similar story from Minnesota.

Students of color and those with disabilities are twice as likely to be suspended or expelled from Minnesota schools than their white peers or students without disabilities, a new study reveals.

The statewide analysis, released Friday by the state's Department of Human Rights, showed that students of color accounted for 66 percent of all school suspensions and expulsions in the 2015-16 school year, even though they make up only 31 percent of Minnesota's student population.

Disabled students were involved in 43 percent of all suspensions and expulsions, but make up only 14 percent of the student population.

"For some schools, this information was somewhat surprising; they hadn't examined this before," Human Rights Commissioner Kevin Lindsey said. "I'm hoping, by us raising the awareness, it does stay front and center for people in Minnesota. I think there are a lot of folks in the state who want kids to succeed. Hopefully we'll see the disparities drop."

If this is a surprise to schools, they haven't been paying attention to both state and national trends. 

Flying Coach

I used an extended airline metaphor to talk about limitations of "choice" in today's piece at Pacific Standard, then tweeted with an @Delta in the promo tweet. Oops.

@Lollardfish David, apologies for any disappointment with your seating. Have you boarded the flt yet? *HKM

— Delta (@Delta) May 30, 2017

See, I used my experience with "choice" of lousy seats as a metaphor for what the GOP wants to do to higher education. It's not /about/ you. https://t.co/Ob5tLlalLs

— David M. Perry (@Lollardfish) May 30, 2017

But I liked my metaphor.

Students Are Not Customers

NEW at Pacific Standard. Please click over and share!

Betsy DeVos and the GOP more generally say that we need to treat students like customers. Three responses.

1) What's so great about being a customer if you're not a billionaire?

2) The student's relationship to their educational institutions and the people who work there cannot be characterized as simply transactional.

3) When students are treated as customers, as Tressie McMillan Cottom show in Lower Ed, the extractive nature of the industry doesn't serve them well.

Also I wrote the first draft in an airport lobby:

"Education can be an engine of social change, a vehicle toward equality. McMillan Cottom makes it clear, though, that the wrong framing, policies, and financial models can turn education into an engine for inequality. To me, DeVos' false insistence on "choice" and on students as "customers" drives us toward the latter outcome. As a billionaire, she's going to fly in a private plane or at least in first class. As a white, cis-male, middle class professor and writer, I get a cramped middle seat in the back. More vulnerable Americans, meanwhile, will be left behind entirely on the ground."

URGENT: Tell Education to Keep Publicizing Civil Rights Data

PLEASE RT: Go to @RegulationsGov to tell @usedgov & @BetsyDeVosED to keep collecting CIVIL RIGHTS DATA. By 2/28.https://t.co/gyjqdUIkMp pic.twitter.com/QQ3aezkbt7

— David M. Perry (@Lollardfish) February 26, 2017

The U.S. Department of Education collects and publicizes vitally important data on civil rights in U.S. Schools. It fuels both policy and journalism. Without good data, we can't tell the big stories and we can't make good decisions. I'm asking you to provide a clear brief comment about why it's important, to let the Department of Education know this program matters. It's not a panic situation. It's not a BREAKING THREAT AHHH! But it is important.

For example, here's last week's piece from NBC News on "kids in cuffs." Behind that story, the Civil Rights Data from Education.

Due in part to tragic school shootings like the Columbine massacre, police and security officers are now a regular presence at schools. But the handcuffing of Kalyb Wiley-Primm is one of many incidents across the country that have led to calls to examine the role that police play in schools, and change how discipline is meted out — particularly to minority students and students with disabilities.

Read it. And here's a thread of numerous other stories I've written on the same topic over the years, all dependent on data collection.

Getting a lot of "what???" comments to this. Hi! Welcome to my feed. I write and tweet about this alot. It's .. WORSE THAN YOU THINK! https://t.co/FvEvLMfkEF

— David M. Perry (@Lollardfish) February 26, 2017

Right now there's a call for comment about changing the way that the information is collected and disseminated. People in the know have suggested it would be a good time to go to Regulations.gov and offer a thoughtful, but brief, comment.

There's no evidence that Secretary DeVos wants to stop collecting and disseminating this data (I have a request in for comment), but it would be useful to make it clear that any attempt to do so in the future will be noticed and met with resistance. Just take a few minutes and say something like (in your own words):

"The Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) provides much-needed transparency and information on key education and civil rights issues in our nation's public schools, including for students with disabilities and those from other marginalized or disadvantaged backgrounds. This data helps the U.S. Department of Education achieve its mission of ensuring access to equal educational opportunity for all students. Secretary DeVos should please preserve, expand, and publicly share the results of the CRDC."

Then you enter some information, if you want, and you're done! Select "individual" or "academic" or whatever.

Here's another example of comment.

Feel free to borrow from my comments, posted here: https://t.co/jMSlVVkVnc

Doc is editable, so feel free to share your's too. https://t.co/qPZLEQZKfp

— Thad Domina (@ThadDomina) February 26, 2017

Inconvenient Metaphors: DeVos Confirmed! IDEA Website Down!

UPDATE: A spokesperson for the Department of Education sent me this (I updated the title as well)

We were made aware of the problem with the site early this morning and  we are actively working to resolve. There have been server issues relating to this site going back to at least Jan. 27.

We're actively working to resolve right now and hope to have the site up and running any ASAP.

The site was not taken down.

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We have an IEP this morning and I wasn't planning to blog anything, as I have two stories being published today. But then I was alerted to this.

BREAKING: Our children's future. IDEA's website is 404 not found. https://t.co/JvWYmJKOuJ #DumpDevos pic.twitter.com/0hbFJzJqf0

— David M. Perry (@Lollardfish) February 8, 2017

The IDEA website is not loading. The connection times out, so it could just be some kind of glitch, but we'll see (yes, technies, I know it's not a 404). There's some archived information if you did through search results, but tons of the material is not currently accessible.

The Department of Education Office of Special Education and internet publications around disability law are not political. There is nothing especially partisan about IDEA, though there are debates around enforcement and the degree of education required (with a big SCOTUS decision coming down about it). It's a bizarre thing to do.

Would a new Secretary of Education with a new head of OSEP want to revise pages? Sure. But to simply take them down, the morning after Devos was confirmed, especially given her wild incoherence around IDEA specifically ... it's a very odd decision.

Some of this stuff may be FOIAable, but I'm not an expert on that. Time to learn new research skills. I'll dig.

But in the meantime, we really do have an IEP. It's not just ironic timing.

Five Questions for NDSS

1. What is the NDSS position on using vouchers to privatize special education.
2. Has NDSS taken money from Devos or anyone connected to DeVos? 
3. NDSS has a new emphasis on human rights, but every employee on your website presents as white. What is your diversity plan?
4. What is the NDSS position on the Affordable Care Act and block grants for Medicaid?
5. Did NDSS sign off on Avonte's Law even though funding for RFID chips in disabled kids was being taken from community-police relations programs in minority communities? (I'll catch readers up on this law when it gets re-introduced in Congress)

CONTEXT:

Yesterday at Pacific Standard I have a piece on the dilemma presented to advocacy orgs (I focus on disability, but I think it's a general problem) by the Trump administration. From a PR perspective, they are completely toxic to any organization that is at all concerned about justice, social or otherwise. But from an influence perspective, you need access to do your job.

In the disability world, DeVos’ position that enforcement of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) should be left up to the states emerged as particularly dangerous — and would also violate federal law.

Shortly after the hearings, the National Down Syndrome Society (NDSS), one of the more visible Washington-based Down syndrome advocacy groups, published a post on Facebook showing DeVos meeting with them and posing for pictures. The headline: “National Down Syndrome Society Meets with DeVos. Applauds her commitment to special need families.” The world of disability rights activists, including many parents of kids with disabilities, reacted in fury; this was, after all, a cabinet nominee who seems to find disability rights expendable. There ensued hundreds of negative comments, widespread denunciations on social media, accusations leveled at the pro-Trump chairman of NDSS’ board, quick clarifications from NDSS, secret phone conferences with their backers, and so on. The National Down Syndrome Congress (NDSC), a rival organization, released a statement requesting that the Senate delay voting on DeVos’ nomination. The consequences of that poorly worded photo op are going to linger, possibly for years, in this particular community.

I have a history - —all positive - —with NDSS. I signed on as an ambassador during the run up to the ABLE act, a bill designed to make it possible for some people with disabilities to save money for education and housing without losing their government benefits. There were rumors that the NDSS was telling the GOP they were willing to exclude adults diagnosed with disabilities in exchange for kids - —i.e., protect people with Down syndrome and ignore the needs of others, —but I thought the law overall was worth fighting for. Last March, NDSS included a Trump “MAGA” hat in a charity auction. I was sitting in a pub in D.C. late that night, as it happened, with a gathering of other disability -rights activist (and a stray medievalist or two), when my phone blew up with the controversy. I stepped outside, and personally called Sara Weir on her cellphone to make sure she knew what was going on. She emailed me a statement, and removed the hat from the auction, and I distributed her words across advocacy networks to calm the controversy.

But right now, NDSS isn’t talking. I’ve repeatedly emailed them, called all the numbers I know, and asked these four questions. They are not responding, hence I've had to go more public. I say this not just as a journalist, but as a father of a boy with Down syndrome.

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To my mind, NDSS is just doing what it's always done, seeking access and supporting laws help kids and adults with Down syndrome, even if the law ignores or actively hurts other marginalized communities. It seems to be increasingly a Down Syndrome First, organization, not a Human Rights organization.

The DeVos debacle is a case in point. NDSS thought it was business as usual. They have a rich right-winger running their board, the head of the DS Guild of Michigan works/worked for the running mate of Betsy DeVos' husband when he ran for governor. They used those contacts to get access, to get a photo op, to demonstrate that they are in the room where it happens. Then the community blew up, and liberal backers of NDSS quickly rallied to argue that the access was worth the bad optics, that it was just poor messaging rather than a sign of ill intent.

I've never taken part in the non-profit wars within the Down syndrome community. There are a lot of hurt feelings and divisions, competition for donations and publicity, and some personality clashes (I'm told).

But someday Trump will be out of office, and if NDSS wants to maintain credibility as a "Human rights org," rather than a right-wing Down syndrome organization that doesn't care about disability rights more generally, they are going to have to change course, and do so quickly.

It might already be too late for this current crop of leadership, but I hope not.

And you can start by answering questions.

DeVos Hearings and IDEA - Three Clips

When someone says they will be "sensitive" to the needs of people with disabilities, I get nervous. Being sensitive is like "awareness" campaigns. It doesn't do anything.

One: Hassan and DeVos on vouchers and special ed.

Hassan - It's not just ideas, but how they work in practice.


Two: Kaine and DeVos (DeVos - Leave it up to the states)



Three: Hassan and Devos part II

Hassan: What about warehousing?
DeVos: I'll be sensitive to special needs students.
Hassan: No, it's about enforcing the law not sensitivity.