A group of Democratic state lawmakers is proposing changes to the school discipline process.
The group says their bills would provide students a hearing and chance to appeal a suspension longer than 10 days—among other changes.
“It should be something that we do very deliberately, it should be something that we do very, very rarely. And too often, it happens to kids who are poor, who are Black and Brown, who have learning disabilities or have special needs. And it’s happening because we failed them at some step earlier when there was an opportunity to intervene.” said Democratic state Senator Adam Hollier.
The proposals build upon a 2016 law. It outlined a list of factors schools must consider when deciding whether to remove a student from the classroom.