Work Group Members:

Updated 4/9/2024

2023-2024 Priorities:

• Disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline, beginning with early childhood programs by reducing the use of school suspensions and expulsions and increasing the use of counseling services and community-based programs and initiatives.
• Increase racial, ethnic, gender, and disability status diversity among school and childcare leadership and staff and the institutions that train them.

2023-2024 Short-Term Suspensions Work Group Meeting Schedule:

• Friday, October 27, 2023, from 11:00 to 12:00 pm, Microsoft Teams
• Friday, December 8, 2023, from 10:00 to 11:00 am, Microsoft Teams
• Friday, February 16, 2024, from 10:00 to 11:00 am, Microsoft Teams
• Friday, April 12, 2024, from 10:00 to 11:00 am, Microsoft Teams
• Friday, June 14, 2024, from 10:00 to 11:00 am, Microsoft Teams

Friday, April 12, 2024, 10:00 to 11:00 am, Microsoft Teams- Work Group Meeting

Attendees: Will Boone, Matthew Ellinwood, Rev. Paul Robeson Ford, Gerri Mattson, Fernando Martinez, Letha Muhammad, Peggy D. Nicholson, Peter Rawitsch, Val Young; Staff: Ashley Rink

• Welcome and Agenda Overview
  • Letha Muhammad welcomed the group. Work group members were asked to introduce themselves.
• Grounding and Level Setting
  • An overview of the North Carolina State Health Improvement Plan (NC SHIP) Community Council was provided. Health Indicator 3: Short-Term Suspensions is one of the 21 indicators identified in Healthy North Carolina 2030 (HNC 2030).
  • The purpose of the 2023-2024 NC SHIP Community Council is to prioritize, act, and connect to advance the HNC 2030 population indicators.
  • The Short-Term Suspensions Work Group identified the following priorities for 2023-2024:
    • Disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline, beginning with early childhood programs by reducing the use of school suspensions and expulsions and increasing the use of counseling services and community-based programs and initiatives
    • Increase racial, ethnic, gender, and disability status diversity among school and childcare leadership and staff and the institutions that train them
• Expanding Work Group and Going Forward
  • Rev. Paul Robeson Ford shared expanding the work group increases the connection and opportunities for collaboration throughout the state on school discipline issues, especially at the elementary school level.
  • Letha Muhmmad shared additional background leading to the expansion of the Short-Term Suspensions Work Group. Many years ago, there were working groups at the state level looking at school discipline as an issue in North Carolina. The Every Child NC Coalition was starting to have conversation about exclusionary discipline practices and their connection to gross underfunding of public schools.
  • The Short-Term Suspensions Work Group could evolve into a real community led effort to ensure that we in exclusionary discipline practices in North Carolina. Working groups are fluid and there is an opportunity to join forces and efforts. New people have been invited to join the work group as part of this expansion.
• Progress Updates
  • Rev. Ford acknowledged within the meeting there were people:
    • who had worked on successfully moving forward campaigns to end K-3 suspensions under very inhospitable political circumstances,
    • who are working with North Carolina state legislators to draft legislation to end Pre-K-3 suspensions,
    • who are focused on researching the impacts of exclusionary discipline on young children, and/or
    • who may not be actively engaged in one of those three areas that are connected to this work and are passionate about it.
  • The approach for establishing a statewide level policy to end Pre-K through third grade suspensions will need to be district by district and community by community, considering the current political realities.
  • Love Our Children- Revising Short-Term Suspension Policy 4351 in New Hanover County
    • Love Our children down in New Hanover County over the course of 13 months successfully completed a campaign to secure support from the New Hanover County School Board to pass policy 4351 to end K through three suspensions, with exceptions for extreme circumstances.
    • Peter Rawitsch shared Love Our Children has been monitoring the school districts K-2 out of suspension data by looking at the number of students that have been suspended and how the suspensions were coded.
      • During the 2018-2019 school year, there were over 300 K-2 out of school suspensions and in 2022-2023 there were 71. Of the 71, only 13 were coded as serious suspensions were coded as serious offenses, such as weapons, assaults, fights, and threats. The other 58 out of school suspensions were coded as minor offenses in violation of the new policy. After an internal audit of some of those suspensions by reading the principals’ narratives it was determined they were in fact serious offenses. The district assured for this school year they would talk to the elementary school principals to make sure they were using the correct coding.
      • For the 2023-2024 school year, from August to February, there were 62 suspensions with only 13 coded as serious offenses. The other 49 were coded as minor offenses; the district’s audit found they were all justified and may or may not be recoded.
      • There is a need to address the difference between serious and minor offenses and to look closer at the coding systems or a better option for making in school suspension with a licensed teacher a last resort for 5-, 6-, and 7-year-olds to continue to stay in school and learn and thrive.
    • Peter also shared an update that Love Our Children’s current ask of the school district is to allow parents to receive a phone call from an elementary school principal before a determination is made to suspend a 5-, 6-, and 7-year-old. The current policy is written that a parent or other representative may not participate in the pre suspension process.
    • It took Love Our Children twelve months for the New Hanover County Policy Committee to put it on their agenda.
    • At the next policy meeting, they will look again at the suspension policy, and will have an opportunity to address the fact that the policy is written for older students, not younger students.
  • Peggy Nicholson shared through a grant from Duke, a faculty member at their Policy School that has expertise in analyzing education data the state collects is going through K-2 suspension data for each district.
    • The data and information will provide insight into statewide disparities, suspension rates for the K-2 age group, and each district.
    • A community report will be developed that includes research on what other states are doing on the issue of limiting early grade suspension, what local districts are doing on this issue, and recommendations for next steps on this work. EJA and their parent researchers are also involved with the development of this report.
    • The report will tentatively be released in fall 2024. The goals are to raise awareness more broadly among communities and policymakers about this issue and then make recommendations at different levels to advance change at the district and state levels.
  • EJA (Education Justice Alliance)- Potential legislation update
    • Letha Muhmmad shared an administrator with Representative Marcia Morey reached out about potential legislation or language that could be added to existing legislation for the Short Session in April 2024.
    • EJA shared suggestions and model language for North Carolina lawmakers. Potential places for legislation movement included:
    • school districts not having to have an appeal process for parents to use for suspensions,
    • issues in early childcare suspension data collection and lack of a uniform way that data is collected across the state, whether in private or public early childcare settings, and
    • elimination of using suspensions and expulsions in the Pre-K through second or third grade.
• Policy Campaign Template
  • The policy campaign template and toolkit should include alternatives for suspensions and ways to support communities in identifying supports they may have available for teachers, practitioners, and administrators for their systems infrastructure to sustainably implement the policy. Considerations for opportunities to experiment with alternative learning spaces to better serve the interests of students should also be included, such as peace rooms and others.
  • Recommendations were for future subcommittees on policy and data.
  • The next steps were to form a subcommittee to take some of the materials from Love Our Children, the work in Forsyth County, and other spaces to build a policy campaign template that can be shared throughout the state. Those interested in joining this subcommittee should email Ashley Rink.
• Closing
  • The next meeting will be on Friday, June 14, 2024, from 10:00 to 11:00 am on Microsoft Teams.

Friday, February 16, 2024, 10:00 to 11:00 am, Microsoft Teams- Work Group Meeting

Attendees: Rev. Paul Robeson Ford, Kelvin Bullock, Devonya Govan-Hunt, Hayley Lampkin-Blyth, Gerri Mattson, Veronica McLaurin-Brown , Dawn Mendonca Meskil, Amy B. Petersen, Karita Pimentel, Carlton Powell, Peter Rawitsch, Jerry J. Wilson, Val Young; Staff: Ashley Rink; Others: Katie Andress

• Welcome and Agenda Overview
  • Rev. Paul Robeson Ford welcomed the group. Work group members were asked to introduce themselves and share one word on how they were feeling.
• Case Study: Love Our Children in New Hanover County- K-3 Suspensions Campaign
  • Veronica McLaurin-Brown and Peter Rawitsch shared the strategies Love Our Children utilized to end suspensions for young students in New Hanover County.
  • At the March 2021 meeting of the New Hanover Board of Education, members from the New Hanover County NAACP Parents Council presented a petition with 400 signatures calling for the end of K-5 suspensions. At that time the Board of Education voted 7 to 0 to keep the policy as it was written and add a sentence stating suspensions would only be used as a last resort. Following the March 2021 Board meeting Love Our Children began and started advocating for the end of out of school suspensions for their youngest learners. 
  • Love Our Children utilized research to support their proposal acknowledging that suspensions do not work and that there are effective alternatives to suspensions. Suspended students experience more academic failure and grade retention and are as much as 10 times more likely to drop out of high school and are more likely to end up in the juvenile justice system.
  • Their campaign strategies for mobilizing the community and gaining support for ending out-of-school suspensions for 4, 5, 6, and 7-year-old children included:
    • Educating the public as their primary strategy,
    • Organizing neighborhoods and engaging parents to attend School Board meetings,
    • Participating in community events, such as Pride Day at the Arboretum and back to school bookbag events,
    • Partnering with other organizations, such as Sokoto House, Speak Ya Peace, and a local black church,
    • Hosting two community forums in partnership with Sokoto House,
    • Distributing postcards to community members in partnership with a local minister,
    • Using poetry with Speak Ya Peace to speak about out-of-school suspensions,
    • Posting videos of the school board meetings on their YouTube Channel,
    • Engaging young parents through their Facebook page,
    • Using store, lawn, and car signs to encourage signing their petition,
    • Using digital billboards,
    • Encouraging an online letter writing campaign to their Board of Education,
    • Holding a press conference,
    • Engaging their local TV news station and newspaper,
    • Identifying key phrases and concepts for their team members to use when communicating with the media, including TV news, newspapers, and radio interviews,
    • Providing an opportunity to sign the petition online on their website, and
    • Having community organizations sign a resolution to help spotlight and publicize their support for ending out of school suspensions.
  • At the February 2021 meeting of the New Hanover Board of Education, the Board voted three to four for the proposal. In the following months, a Board member that had voted against the proposal made a motion for a new vote and the three remaining Board members flipped their votes and voted 7 to 0 in favor of the proposal. Overall, it took thirteen months for the proposal to be approved.
  • The link to the Love Our Children music video is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBBtJy5XrdQ.
• Emerging Work in Forsyth County
  • Rev. Paul Robeson Ford shared how in Forsyth County they are organizing institutional partners by:
    • Identifying key institutional stakeholders,
    • Establishing and sustaining communication, and
    • Understanding the policy making process in Forsyth County with the full School Board as the last stop and learning about the internal policy committees led by district staff and how those committees operate.
• Shifting/ Expanding Work Group Structure
  • Rev. Paul Robeson Ford and Letha Muhammad have discussed the possibility expanding this work group by pulling in other people working in similar areas, so this group can become a reactivated school discipline group to ensure all the insights and resources are involved.
  • Ashley Rink shared across the Community Council there are other groups that have aligned with existing groups to leverage resources and members to move their work forward. There are opportunities for this work group to grow and consider different directions the group can go in.
  • Outside of the Community Council, this group could continue as a community-based group that has a central space and platform to work on issues surrounding the reduction and end of exclusionary discipline.
  • Work group members are asked to consider their thoughts on this expanding the work group.
• Closing
  • The following meeting dates were set by those present.
    • Friday, April 12, 2024, from 10:00 to 11:00 am, Microsoft Teams
    • Friday, June 14, 2024, from 10:00 to 11:00 am, Microsoft Teams

Friday, December 8, 2023, 10:00 to 11:00 am, Microsoft Teams- Work Group Meeting

Attendees:  Rev. Paul Robeson Ford; Hayley Lampkin-Blyth; Veronica McLaurin-Brown; Gerri Mattson; Peggy D. Nicholson; Amy B. Petersen; Carlton Powell; Peter Rawitsch; Val Young; Staff: Ashley Rink; Others: Katie Andress

• Welcome and Agenda Overview
  • Rev. Paul Robeson Ford welcomed the group. Rev. Ford shared Letha Muhammad and one of the presenters was under the weather and were unable to attend the meeting.
  • The grounding question was, “What burning question do you have in your heart, mind, and spirit about the work of this group as you enter this meeting today?” A summary of responses is included below.
    • How do we push forward?
    • What is the policy agenda for the group?
    • What are we going to do with the information being gathered?
    • What is the outcome and the product? What are we going to do with the product?
    • Who are the decision makers within DHHS/ affect change and what is the level of influence?
    • How can we assist in our roles in supporting the work?
    • How do we as an organization get policy paths that support the health, welfare, and education of our youth?
    • How do we make the standard of care for the health and wellbeing of black and brown children in early care and classroom settings?
    • How do we educate policymakers and increase enough awareness about the fact that suspensions and expulsions are happening in childcare settings?
    • Where are the pressure points with decision makers that we can influence and promote policy that loves all of our black and brown children?
• Determine/ Consensus on 2023-2024 Priority or Priorities
  • In 2022-2023, the Short-Term Suspensions Work Group identified the following priorities.
    • Disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline, beginning with early childhood programs by reducing the use of school suspensions and expulsions and increasing the use of counseling services and community-based programs and initiatives
    • Increase racial, ethnic, gender, and disability status diversity among school and childcare leadership and staff and the institutions that train them
  • Rev. Ford reviewed this year would be the year of action and the policy agenda for this year are the two above policies. This work group will work on implementing actions that will disrupt the school to prison pipeline and increase racial, ethnic, gender, and disability status diversity among school and childcare leadership. One of the root cause issues of the school to prison pipeline is the lack of culturally affirming environments and inability to engage in a way that creates a deep sense of belonging.
  • The work group will move forward with implementing actions that will advance these policies. There has been great work around the state to disrupt the school to prison pipeline with a focus on ending kindergarten to third grade suspensions.
  • Rev. Ford proposed learning from the experiences and challenges Love Our Children experienced in New Hanover County. These learnings could be used to establish a template for how to do similar work in local school districts around the state. Products could include a template of action, toolkit, and webinar content for other communities around the state, including school districts and school boards.
  • Love Our Children North Carolina secured a policy in New Hanover County to end suspensions for K-3 students, with exceptions for weapons and serious threats of violence. Similar work is being done in Forsyth County.
  • An analysis is needed of where K-3 suspension policies stand in each of the county school districts in North Carolina.
  • Due to the political climate at the state level, change can be focused on the work local communities can do locally. This would be taking a grassroots approach to adoption of a policy at the state level to ban suspensions for K-3, with the exceptions for weapons and other extreme circumstances.
  • Work group members present at the meeting were in favor of the approach Rev. Ford proposed.
  • Regarding the question, “how can I help,” the work group has connections to a wide base of networks that information, materials, and toolkit can be shared through. There will be opportunities to organize the work in the group’s various circles.  Funding requests may come in terms of resources to help facilitate this work.
  • Work group members can share resources and information through the Microsoft Teams Channel.
  • A question was asked about if there was an opportunity to expand the suspension and expulsion policies to include Pre-K. In New Hanover because of the conversation with Head Start the policy’s focus narrowed to five-, six-, and seven-year-olds and when the policy was written it took care of everybody under the age of eight. The Head Start Program has federal funding requirements that they may not receive out of school suspensions.
  • The North Carolina Division of Child Development and Early Education is the regulatory body for childcare facilities and the NC Pre-K program and in their roles, there is a section on preventing suspensions and expulsions. The rule set is available in their Early Childhood Suspension and Expulsion Policy.
• Closing
  • At the next work group meeting, Veronica McLaurin-Brown and Peter Rawitsch will share a case study and presentation on the work by Love Our Children in New Hanover County. Rev. Paul Ford will share about the emerging work being done in Forsyth County.
  • The group tentatively scheduled the next work group meeting for Friday, February 2, from 10:00 to 11:00 am via Microsoft Teams. Work group members not in attendance will be contacted to confirm their availability. A calendar invite to hold the meeting date was sent to work group members. 
  • The meeting was closed with the question, “How are you feeling leaving this space?”
    • Inspired, energized, and motivated to have everyone focusing on a targeted outcome that is doable and has already been accomplished in some areas.
    • Hopeful. Good and looking forward to the work in the new year.
    • The work ahead is challenging, implementing all these things across the state will be hard, and are up for the challenge.
    • Happy to know we have a path going forward.
    • Excited to have this vision and interaction.
    • Feel fellowship among people who are like minded and are part of team through this climb.
    • Glad there are willing workers to do something special that should be a given for our children.

Friday, October 27, 2023, 11:00 to 12:00 pm, Microsoft Teams- Work Group Meeting

Attendees:  Will Boone, Reighlah Collins, Rev. Paul Robeson Ford, Hayley Lampkin-Blyth, Gerri Mattson, Veronica McLaurin-Brown, Letha Muhammad, Peggy D. Nicholson, Amy B. Petersen, Peter Rawitsch, Val Young; Staff: Hannah McDiarmid and Ashley Rink

• Welcome and Agenda Overview
  • The Co-Leaders, Letha Muhammad, Paul Ford, and Gerri Mattson welcomed the work group and thanked them for their involvement. 
  • The purpose of the meeting was to provide grounding and leveling setting for the Year of Action, review indicator and priorities, and identify next steps for work group.
  • Work group members present introduced themselves and shared what concerns about young people brought them to the work of this group.
• Grounding and Level Setting
  • The following were reviewed: group agreements, common language, Indicator 3: Short-Term Suspensions, Year of Action asks, roles and expectations, and timeline. Refer to the slides for information on these topics.
  • The 2023 NC SHIP report is available at https://schs.dph.ncdhhs.gov/units/ldas/docs/NCSHIP-2023-101723.pdf. The pages for Indicator 3: Short-Term Suspensions are available at https://schs.dph.ncdhhs.gov/units/ldas/docs/3-ShortTermSuspensions-SHIP2023-101723.pdf.
  • Discussed ability to influence legislators to change statutes related to out of school suspensions or exclusionary discipline. Discussion included the following:
    • Last year was the first year of the current structure for the NC SHIP Community Council. After the work groups identified their priorities, the priorities were shared with Division of Public Health leadership for review.
    • House Bill 188 was introduced during this legislative session; https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UHjmkfRuVkiQFbk2n59qvjL9_o_sEWHc/view. The work is connected to legislative realities at the state level.
    • The recommendations will be shared through the NC SHIP to the appropriate people at the state level, acknowledging that does not mean they will act on them.
    • There is an opportunity to leverage the work being done locally to end suspensions for kindergarten to third grade students for statewide campaigns.
• Priority Review
  • The 2022-2023 Short-Term Suspensions Work Group identified the following priorities:
    • Disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline, beginning with early childhood programs by reducing the use of school suspensions and expulsions and increasing the use of counseling services and community-based programs and initiatives
    • Increase racial, ethnic, gender, and disability status diversity among school and childcare leadership and staff and the institutions that train them
  • Discussion related to each of the priorities is included below each priority. Disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline, beginning with early childhood programs by reducing the use of school suspensions and expulsions and increasing the use of counseling services and community-based programs and initiatives
    • Consider if the group is willing to provide the intensity and extensiveness to advocate and support the ending and reduction of school suspensions.
    • Data is not available for exclusionary discipline practices in private childcare settings. A recommendation could be about how to capture data in private settings.
    • There may be opportunities to leverage investments in NC Pre-Ks for available data.
    • There is data on public school suspensions and expulsions available for kindergarten to third grade students that could be used to look back on early childcare settings.
  • Increase racial, ethnic, gender, and disability status diversity among school and childcare leadership and staff and the institutions that train them
    • Culturally affirming environments are important for children in schools for consensus and connection. The classification of disciplinary practices is subjective as to what constitutes disruptive behaviors.
    • This priority has many moving parts and is long-term as well as politically controlled. Different approaches and strategies are needed to achieve this priority.
    • The group should consider where the group has the possibility to influence or not.
    • There may be an opportunity to connect with the Dudley Flood Center about the Governor’s DRIVE Task Force. An action item could be to support and amplify the work happening at Dudley Flood Center through the DRIVE Task Force.
• Action Steps
  • At the next work group meeting, the group will:
    • Plan to decide as a work group which priorities the group will focus on going forward for action planning.
    • Set work group meeting schedule for 2024.
  • Work group members are encouraged to share any additional information and/or resources about how to make the priorities actionable. This information can be shared with the co-leaders.
• Closing
  • The group scheduled the next work group meeting for Friday, December 8, 2023, from 10:00 to 11:00 am via Microsoft Teams.

• Dudley Flood Center for Educational Equity and Opportunity. (October 2023). Dudley Flood Center to take up work of the governor’s DRIVE Task Force. https://floodcenter.org/2023/dudley-flood-center-to-take-up-work-of-the-governors-drive-task-force/
• North Carolina General Assembly. (April 2023). House Bill 188- Standards of Student Conduct. https://www.ncleg.gov/BillLookUp/2023/H188

• EducationNC. (August 2022). Pre-K suspensions and expulsions can have dire effects- but we don’t know how common they are. https://www.ednc.org/pre-k-suspensions-expulsions-dire-effects-how-common/
• Governor’s DRIVE Task Force: https://governor.nc.gov/issues/education/drive-task-force
• North Carolina Department of Instruction. (2023). Educational Equity and Significant Disproportionality. https://www.dpi.nc.gov/districts-schools/classroom-resources/exceptional-children/educational-equity-and-significant-disproportionality
• North Carolina Department of Instruction. (2023). NC Social and Emotional Learning: https://www.dpi.nc.gov/districts-schools/districts-schools-support/nc-social-and-emotional-learning
• The Education Trust. (July 2022). Educator Diversity State Profile: North Carolina. https://edtrust.org/resource/educator-diversity-state-profile-north-carolina/
• The National Center for Pyramid Model Innovations. (2023). https://challengingbehavior.org