By: Shelley McKinley
We have all heard of the school to prison pipeline, but when and how do students actually enter the pipeline? Working our way backwards, we have to look at the composition of students in correctional facilities. According to the Children’s Defense Fund, 41% of youth in custody (ex. juvenile justice and detention centers, jails and prisons) are Black. Black youth are more likely to be in custody than White youth in every state but Hawaii. The national youth placement rate of 114 per 100,000 masks a massive racial disparity. Additionally, national reports show that 1 in 3 students in juvenile correctional facili- ties are receiving special education services. So how can we proactively steer Black students with docu- mented disabilities away from the pipeline to prison?
As Asa Hilliard said in 1995, “The knowledge and skills to educate all students already exists. The remaining question
is if educators have the sustained will to
