Gwinnett Parent Coalition to Dismantle the School to Prison Pipeline: A Community‐Based Solution

Gwinnett SToPP Endeavors

History

The Gwinnett Parent Coalition to Dismantle the School to Prison Pipeline (Gwinnett SToPP) formed in April 2007 to lead

a parent‐driven, community centered partnership approach to dismantling the school to prison pipeline in Gwinnett

County. Growing frustration with the number of schools relying on harsh punishment, and law enforcement to address

minor school misconduct led to the formation of the parent coalition. Gwinnett County Public Schools has well over

1,400 children enrolled in alternative schools. Gwinnett’s population has doubled since 1990, while its inmate

population has increased six times.

Gwinnett SToPP seeks to build and strengthen relationships with community leaders in two constructive ways. The first

way is to increase public awareness of the injustice that all children face within the educational system as it relates to

the pipeline and the judicial process. Secondly, by promoting policy changes through data accountability and fact‐based

incident reporting which serve to support and strengthen the dismantling of the school to prison pipeline in Gwinnett

County.    

Members of the coalition include the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia, Atlanta Community Engagement

network (ACEN), Interfaith Children’s Movement (ICM), the Rho Kappa Lambda Chapter of the of Alpha Phi Alpha

Fraternity, Inc. and other community stakeholders.

Initiatives

Gwinnett SToPP’s first year was spent organizing, forming our mission, creating goals, and developing collateral

materials. Upon completion, the public education and monitoring of policies began. Gwinnett SToPP has been actively

engaged in fulfilling the awareness and education tenets of its mission while promoting policy changes.  

To increase awareness both within and outside of the Gwinnett borders we have:

3⁄4 Developed a formal customizable presentation, which includes a panel comprised of our co‐chairs, that is designed

to share the details of the state, national and local data trends, and respond to audience questions. Gwinnett

SToPP has presented at:

 Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School  

 Gwinnett County Public Schools

 Gwinnett Human Relations Commission

 Georgia PTA Convention and Leadership Training Conference

 UGA College of Family and Consumer Sciences ‐  The Prison Pipeline: The Intersection of Childhood and

the Criminal Justice System Conference

 Georgia State University MSW Students ‐ Stop the School to Prison Pipeline Forum

To facilitate the public education component, we have developed two highly interactive workshops available free to

parents. The workshops are designed to empower parents and care‐givers with information and tools to be a better

advocate for children. Each session lasts 2 hours, and both include an introduction into the school to prison pipeline so

the classes are able to run independently of each other or together. Available workshops include:
3⁄4 What Your Student/Parent Handbook Didn't Really Tell You ...reading between the lines

Highly interactive workshop which has been designed specifically to engage our community in understanding the

links between student behavior, GCPS disciplinary policy, the loss of educational opportunity, and the

juvenile/adult court system. We believe that caring adults who are informed and understand these specific

links will be the single most important factor in dismantling the school to prison pipeline which exists in our

community and the nation.   

3⁄4 Has Your Student Received Suspension/Detention; is it time for an intervention?  

Which behaviors are more likely to result in disciplinary action or in low grades? Behavior is one of the major

feeders to the dropout rate. How we manage behavior has a critical impact on the education of our children.

Many students with undiagnosed learning disabilities can become behavior issues. Students removed by

suspension are often those who need to be in school the most. Parent involvement is key! Learn how early

interventions can keep your student on the right track.   

Our specialized workshops have been very successful in providing parents with the necessary tools to be an informed

partner in their students’ education. Gwinnett SToPP offers the workshops to community groups supportive of our

mission.

In 2011, Gwinnett SToPP launched the Parent Leadership Institute (PLI). PLI is an extensive grassroots school‐advocacy

training program for parents. PLI pairs grassroots community leadership training with education advocacy training and

school discipline reform tools. Project teams implement a school‐community project in their immediate school cluster

designed to impact a feeder into the School to Prison Pipeline, ultimately improving the climate for learning in schools.  

Subject matter experts in and outside of Gwinnett are used in the areas of restorative practices, juvenile justice, student

codes of conduct and media. Particular skill sets needed such as verbal and written communication to influence decision

makers and understanding the legislative and school board processes are honed to prepare participants for completion

of their school‐community projects.  

Some of the policy changes that Gwinnett SToPP and its organization partners have successfully advocated for include:

3⁄4 Participated in the development of a community‐based review of the disciplinary code of conduct revision.

3⁄4 Instigated a policy change to provide transparency and increased education equity for every other district in the

state regarding Investing in Educational Excellence (IE2) contracts that the Georgia Department of Education makes

with school systems. We also closed the loophole that Gwinnett County Public Schools (GCPS) used to amend their

IE2 contract without public review. Districts must now renegotiate their entire contract to gain release from new

state rules. IE2 participation is a decision that all 189 districts in Georgia will have to make by 2015.

3⁄4 Denoting Official Code of Georgia Annotated (OCGA) violations in the GCPS Student/Parent Handbook that could

result in a referral to a School Resource Officer and possible criminal charges.

3⁄4 Reviewed and rewrote (with other organizations) the Georgia Department of Education’s alternative school rules.

3⁄4 Mounted a successful campaign to challenge the creation of a proposed disciplinary alternative program for

elementary school students and increased public transparency for this issue.

3⁄4 Supported the Safe Schools Initiative that dramatically changed the use of restraint and seclusion in Georgia schools.

3⁄4 Filed a U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights (OCR) complaint against GCPS’ Investing in Educational

Excellence Partnership (IE2

) contract. The accountability and performance objectives featured in the IE2 contract,

which allow GCPS to bypass several existing state laws  ―  regarding education certification requirements for

teachers, class size requirements, expenditure controls, and ELL program requirements, among others, are

dependent upon different aggregate performance benchmarks segregated by race and therefore, discriminatory.

We are awaiting a finding of the OCR investigation.