Dear Governor Walz, Lt. Governor Flanagan, Speaker Demuth, and Members of the Minnesota Legislature:
Today we as community members, colleagues, and organizations join alongside the Solutions Not Suspensions Coalition to express our concerns over the attempt to repeal the Kindergarten through third grade dismissal ban in Minnesota. (SF1022 and HF514)
In 2023, legislators took important steps to end the school-to-prison pipeline, creating age-appropriate limits on exclusionary discipline in order to keep our youngest learners in school. For years, Minnesota's approach to school discipline simply wasn’t working, with too many students being pushed out rather than supported to develop the skills they need for long-term success.
Before 2023, not only did K-3rd grade dismissals have a disproportionate impact on students of color and students with disabilities, but they also brought long-term negative consequences, including decreased student outcomes, graduation rates, and poor school climate.
In a 2018 study from the American Journal on Education, suspended students had weaker attendance, course completion rates, standardized test scores, were more likely to drop out, and were less likely to graduate within 4, 5, or 6 years. Furthermore, we can see the disproportionate impact plainly in the Minnesota 2022 Expulsions and Suspensions Report:
From 2018-2019, students with disabilities made up 14% of the student body, yet they experienced almost 60% of all discipline issued by school staff for subjective student behavior
From 2018-2019, Black, Indigenous, and other students of color made up a little less than half of the student body, yet they made up almost 80% of discipline issued by school staff for subjective student behavior.
We need to make sure our youngest and most vulnerable students have a chance for growth and learning.
To implement this law, districts have been working over the last two years to develop and implement non-exclusionary alternatives to dismissals, which moves the state toward better outcomes for all students. We should not repeal what has barely had a chance to work and be implemented. If districts, schools, and educators need additional support to keep children in school, we should be resourcing them and developing creative solutions. The solution is not to go backwards.
We urge you to give our children a chance, and keep in place the K-3 dismissal ban.
Thank you for your consideration.
Solutions Not Suspensions Coalition
