Special Issue Editor's Foreword

• Author: Judith S. Kaye
• Published date: 01 July 2013
• Date: 01 July 2013
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fcre.12033

INTRODUCTION

SPECIAL ISSUE EDITOR’S FOREWORD

Hon. Judith S. Kaye

In March 2012, I convened the first “National Leadership Summit on School Justice Partnerships:

Keeping Kids in School and Out of Court” in New York City by ringing a school bell, literally and

figuratively. It was the first school bell I ever heard when I was five years old in a one-room

schoolhouse in upstate New York. The bell was a recent gift to me from local residents.

For my parents, both immigrants to the United States, the dream was that their children would be

healthy, safe, educated, and prepared for a good life—meaning one that utilized their talents and

fulfilled their ambitions. As for so many, for my parents, America stood for opportunity to fulfill that

dream.

The Summit opened with top state judicial and education officials focused on current juvenile

justice and school discipline trends, and it closed two full days later with Marian Wright Edelman,

founder of the Children’s Defense Fund, ringing that school bell, reciting the devastating statistics

on what is in fact not the dream but the nightmare for far too many parents and children today. Many

call it the school-to-prison pipeline—children suspended, expelled, and dropping out of school and

arrested, increasingly at school.The message was clear: we need to reroute those kids and rekindle the

American dream.

Happily, I can report that the Summit drew representatives from 45 states, the District of Colum-

bia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands, including 23 top state court judges (15 of them chief

justices), fourteen top education officials, and 12 Native American leaders. Their dedication to this

initiative underscores the recognition of the vital connection between school discipline policies and

the juvenile and criminal justice systems and the opportunity we have—working together—to effect

change.

The Summit was organized around presentations, breakout groups, and forty-eight individual

tables—for each of the jurisdictions represented—to facilitate state team discussions about what to do

next. With the assistance of student volunteer notetakers from all of the New York City law schools in

the first multi–law school effort to promote the well-being of children, families, and communities, we

were actually able to capture the essence of all the State Team discussions.

WHAT DID WE LEARN FROM THE STATE REPORTS?

Perhaps most significant, nearly two-thirds of the Teams with finalized reports have indicated an

interest in either themselves conducting a State Summit or convening a Task Force as a strategy to

move forward. Additionally, nearly half of the Teams spoke about the need to provide increased

accessibility to mental health services.

The public can access authorized state reports on the Summit Web site at www.School

-JusticeSummit.org. Here are a few highlights that show what states are planning to do in an effort to

keep kids in school and out of court:

• Arizona is developing an information-sharing agreement between the State Department of

Education and the courts.

FAMILY COURT REVIEW, Vol. 51 No. 3, July 2013 377–379

© 2013 Association of Familyand Conciliation Cour ts