PRECIOUS RESOURCES CAUGHT IN A PIPELINE

The "School to Prison Pipeline," is a disturbing national trend wherein children are funneled out of public schools and into the juvenile and criminal justice systems. Many of these students are minorities, have disabilities, histories of poverty, abuse and/or neglect, and would benefit from additional educational and support services. Instead, they are isolated, punished, and "pushed-out". "Zero-tolerance" policies criminalize minor infractions of school rules for those students schools find challenging to control, while high-stakes testing programs encourage educators to "push-out" low-performing students to improve

their schools' overall test scores. Students of color and disability are especially vulnerable to "push-out" trends and the discriminatory application of discipline. This film will promote awareness, expose the issues, and initiate dialogue that brings to light the detrimental effects of these practices.

The concept of this film is to expose the audience to the stories of individual students, and parents, in concert with interviews of nationally known educational, psychological, and legal professionals that have represented students caught in the pipeline who can explain the existence, effect and results. The first hand accounts of events will introduce a face to the pipeline by showing a personal side of this issue. Research and statistics will be demonstrated showing negative outcomes for youth who enter the pipeline and their tendency to be funneled down the continuum to prison. Best practices will be discussed as well as an awareness developed for the need for reform.

This film seeks answers to questions through investigation and interviews with notable attorneys, advocates, educational and school psychologists, school officials, teachers, and children and parents effected by the pipeline. It is important to define the scope of the interviews to include communities from small towns and rural areas, to medium sized cities and urban areas.