April 2008 — News
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Florida Bill Strikes Zero Tolerance
The bill also mandates that students be expelled and referred to the criminal justice or juvenile justice system for "serious criminal" offenses, as opposed to the previous wording, which specified only "offenses" (i.e., not necessarily criminal and not necessarily serious).
The bill passed the Safety & Security council 14-0 with one missed vote April 1. It passed the Policy & Budget Council 31-0 with four missed votes April 15. The bill was based on recommendations from a January 2008 report by the Blueprint Commission from the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice entitled "Getting Smart about Juvenile Justice in Florida." (A PDF of the report is available here.)
The report found, "Public school systems--themselves under stress--increasingly are using Zero Tolerance practices to send youth into the juvenile justice system rather than apply alternative methods of discipline."
Florida schools, the report said, have been allowed to define their own boundaries for zero tolerance, leading to discrepancies from district to district. In two counties in Florida (Gilchrist and Putnam), for example, a full 6 percent of the entire student body had been referred to the juvenile justice system in the 2005-2006 school year.
Further, according to the report, referrals from schools based on zero tolerance policies seem to target minority populations.
"Apart from the inconsistency of Zero Tolerance rules and applications, the policies tend to increase minority over- representation within the juvenile justice system. Black students in 2004-2005 received 46 percent of out of school suspensions and police referrals, but comprised 22.8 percent of the student population statewide."
The complete report, including recommendations, key findings, and commission membership, can be found here.
The complete bill, with substitutions and amendments, can be downloaded in PDF form from the Florida House of Representatives here.
Further details about the bill, including updated actions, votes, sponsors, amendments, substitutions, and other information can be found here.
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About the author: David Nagel is the executive editor for 1105 Media's online education technology publications, including THE Journal and Campus Technology. He can be reached at dnagel@1105media.com.
Proposals for articles and tips for news stories, as well as questions and comments about this publication, should be submitted to David Nagel, executive editor, at dnagel@1105media.com.
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