Connecticut's Comprehensive Approach to Reducing In‐School Arrests: Changes in Statewide Policy, Systems Coordination and School Practices

• Author: Abby Anderson,Lara Herscovitch,Jeana R. Bracey,Julia R. O'Leary,Robert Plant,Jeffrey J. Vanderploeg,Maria O'Connell,Catherine Foley Geib
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fcre.12039
• Date: 01 July 2013
• Published date: 01 July 2013

CONNECTICUT’S COMPREHENSIVE APPROACH TO REDUCING

IN-SCHOOL ARRESTS: CHANGES IN STATEWIDE POLICY, SYSTEMS

COORDINATION AND SCHOOL PRACTICES

Jeana R. Bracey, Catherine Foley Geib, Robert Plant, Julia R. O’Leary, Abby Anderson,

Lara Herscovitch, Maria O’Connell, and Jeffrey J. Vanderploeg

Despite decreases in school violence over the past two decades, in-school arrest rates are on the rise. This growing trend of

school arrests is attributed in part to an increase in zero-tolerance policies for disruptive behavior and exclusionary discipline

practices such as suspensions, expulsions, and the involvement of law enforcement in school discipline matters. This

article describes recent advancements made toward reducing the rates of in-school arrests in the state of Connecticut through

juvenile justice policy reform, advocacy and systems coordination efforts, and changes to school practice and policy from an

interdisciplinary collaborative approach.

Keypoints:

• Change happened because stakeholders were able to work together across systems.

• Getting solid data was essential to defining the problem and to showing results.

• Model memoranda of agreement helped define the role of police in schools.

• The Judicial Branch began using discretion to push back unnecessary arrests.

• Mental health professionals offered teachers training on behavioral health and connected schools to community

resources.

• The effort to reduce student arrests gained traction in Connecticut coming on the heels of other successful juvenile

justice reforms. Whenever we get a “win,”we should look for an opportunity to build on it.

Keywords: Children’s Mental Health;Exclusionary Discipline;Juvenile Justice;School-Based Arrest;School Climate;

School Resource Officers;School Safety;and Student Arrest.

School violence is at its lowest level since 1992, yet in-school arrests are an increasingly com-

mon phenomenon (Robers, Zhang, & Truman, 2010). Many believe that the rise in in-school

arrests is not due to worsening student behavior, but rather, changes in adult responses to behavior.

Examples include so called “zero tolerance” disciplinary policies that are highly punitive and

often rely on forms of discipline that exclude students from the normal academic experience

through arrest or expulsion. These forms of punishment can have catastrophically negative

consequences on the academic and socio-emotional development of students (Costenbader &

Markson, 1998; Rausch & Skiba, 2004). Furthermore, juvenile arrests in general, and in-school

arrests more specifically, disproportionately occur among students with behavioral health needs

and students from minority racial and ethnic backgrounds (Desai, Falzer, Chapman, & Borum,

2012).

A COMPREHENSIVE THREE-PRONGED APPROACH

There are no simple solutions to the problem of in-school arrests. What is needed is a compre-

hensive approach to changing business as usual through reforms to juvenile justice policy, advocacy

Correspondence: bracey@uchc.edu; catherinefoley.geib@ct.jud.gov; rplant@wellmore.org; julia.oleary@jud.ct.gov; abby@

ctjja.org; lara@ctjja.org; maria.oconnell@yale.edu; jvanderploeg@uchc.edu

FAMILY COURT REVIEW,Vol. 51 No. 3, July 2013 427–434

© 2013 Association of Familyand Conciliation Cour ts