IV 

111TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. RES. 1777 

Raising awareness of school pushout and promoting dignity in schools. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

DECEMBER 17, 2010 

Mr. MURPHY of Connecticut (for himself, Mr. SCOTT of Virginia, Mr. DAVIS

of Illinois, Mr. COHEN, Mr. SERRANO, Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, Ms. 

SHEA-PORTER, Mr. YARMUTH, Mrs. MALONEY, Mr. HINOJOSA, Ms. 

CLARKE, Mr. HASTINGS of Florida, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. PAYNE, Ms. 

MOORE of Wisconsin, Mr. HIMES, Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi, Ms. 

LEE of California, Mr. ORTIZ, Mr. FILNER, Ms. CHU, Mr. FATTAH, and 

Mrs. MCCARTHY of New York) submitted the following resolution; which 

was referred to the Committee on Education and Labor 

RESOLUTION 

Raising awareness of school pushout and promoting dignity 

in schools. 

Whereas 1,300,000 students leave high school prior to graduating each year in the United States, depriving such 

students of reaching their full potential and rendering 

them without meaningful access or opportunity to thrive 

socially, politically, or economically; 

Whereas millions of students attend public schools characterized by conditions that harm education, including corporal punishment, low academic expectations, overcrowded and unwelcoming school environments, overemphasis on high stakes testing without appropriate acaVerDate Mar 15 2010 02:39 Dec 18, 2010 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR1777.IH HR1777

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•HRES 1777 IH 

demic or fiscal support and that limits the ability to focus 

on the whole child, lack of parent, student, and community participation in school decisionmaking, poor or limited teacher training and support, inadequate screening 

and instruction of students with disabilities, and racial 

and socioeconomic isolation; 

Whereas these practices disengage students from learning 

and remove them from the classroom, furthering a national crisis that is more accurately described as ‘‘push 

out’’, as opposed to ‘‘drop out’’, as children and youth 

are effectively pushed out of school; 

Whereas school pushout impacts all students, but disproportionately impacts historically disenfranchised youth, including students of color, students from low-income families, students with developmental, physical, emotional, 

and mental disabilities, students who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered, English language learners, 

youth in State facilities and foster care, pregnant and 

parenting teens, and students in the juvenile justice system and alternative schools; 

Whereas school pushout is dangerously evident in the quickly 

growing rates of suspension, expulsion, and school arrests 

under ‘‘zero tolerance’’ discipline policies employed in 

many of our Nation’s schools; 

Whereas rather than improve school safety, the American 

Psychological Association has found that suspension and 

expulsion negatively impact school-wide achievement and 

increase the risk that excluded students fall behind academically, become alienated from school, drop out, and 

become involved in the juvenile and criminal justice systems; 


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•HRES 1777 IH 

Whereas according to the Secretary of Education, over 

3,300,000 students are suspended and over 100,000 students are expelled at least once each school year, often 

for actions that do not merit exclusion; 

Whereas a first-time arrest doubles the odds of dropout, and 

hundreds of thousands of students are being arrested in 

schools, often for incidents once considered youthful misbehavior to be handled by school disciplinarians; 

Whereas thousands of public schools are adopting proven and 

promising approaches to preventive and positive classroom behavior management and school discipline such as 

school-wide positive behavioral interventions and supports 

(PBIS) and restorative practices, and are witnessing 

positive results, including a reduction of disciplinary incidents, for students and teachers alike; 

Whereas local educational agencies in the Southeast are collaborating with juvenile courts, law enforcement, mental 

health agencies, and community organizations to reduce 

unnecessary school-based arrests through ‘‘school offense 

protocols’’, and the graduation rate of one local educational agency in Georgia climbed by 20 percent after 

adopting its protocol; and 

Whereas there are proven approaches to improving parent engagement with schools, and the positive impact that 

school-based efforts to engage parents can have is most 

profound for students from low-income families and is 

critical for closing the achievement gap: Now, therefore, 

be it 

1 Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 

2 (1) promotes a heightened awareness on the 

3 part of educators and the general public about the 


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•HRES 1777 IH 

1 spectrum of policies and practices that lead to school 

2 pushout; 

3 (2) commits to working to reduce or eliminate 

4 school suspensions (especially out-of-school suspen5 sions), expulsions, arrests, corporal punishment, and 

6 placements in disciplinary alternative schools by 

7 partnering with States, local education agencies, and 

8 schools to adopt and implement evidence-based and 

9 promising approaches to improve student engage10 ment and school safety, and recognizes the need for 

11 effective technical assistance as well as flexibility in 

12 supporting the accurate and durable implementation 

13 of these practices; 

14 (3) understands that proper behavior is not im15 plicit but should be taught explicitly starting from 

16 an early age and practiced, supervised, and recog17 nized throughout the pre-kindergarten through grad18 uation school experience; 

19 (4) acknowledges that educators and school 

20 leaders need effective, efficient, and relevant contin21 uous professional development, training, and support 

22 to effectively teach, encourage, and sustain those so23 cial skills and behaviors that characterize effective 

24 teaching and learning environments for students of 

25 all backgrounds; 


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•HRES 1777 IH 

1 (5) recognizes— 

2 (A) the need to streamline and enhance 

3 school climate and disciplinary data collection; 

4 and 

5 (B) that such data should be used in ana6 lyzing and revising school discipline policies, be7 havioral practices, and systems to produce bet8 ter outcomes for students and teachers; and 

9 (6) supports community collaborations and 

10 meaningful parental involvement to ensure that 

11 schools are safe, respectful, responsible, and effective 

12 teaching and learning environments that reduce— 

13 (A) the likelihood of violent school behav14 ior; and 

15 (B) the use of reactive, compliance, and 

16 punishment-oriented school policies and prac17 tices. 

Æ 


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