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 grad-
uating 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 character-
ized by conditions that harm education, including cor-
poral punishment, low academic expectations, over-
crowded and unwelcoming school environments, over-
emphasis on high stakes testing without appropriate aca-
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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 commu-
nity participation in school decisionmaking, poor or lim-
ited 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 na-
tional 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 dispropor-
tionately impacts historically disenfranchised youth, in-
cluding students of color, students from low-income fami-
lies, students with developmental, physical, emotional, 
and mental disabilities, students who are lesbian, gay, bi-
sexual, and transgendered, English language learners, 
youth in State facilities and foster care, pregnant and 
parenting teens, and students in the juvenile justice sys-
tem 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 aca-
demically, become alienated from school, drop out, and 
become involved in the juvenile and criminal justice sys-
tems; 
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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 stu-
dents 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 mis-
behavior to be handled by school disciplinarians; 
Whereas thousands of public schools are adopting proven and 
promising approaches to preventive and positive class-
room 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 inci-
dents, for students and teachers alike; 
Whereas local educational agencies in the Southeast are col-
laborating 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 edu-
cational agency in Georgia climbed by 20 percent after 
adopting its protocol; and 
Whereas there are proven approaches to improving parent en-
gagement 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 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) promotes a heightened awareness on the 
part of educators and the general public about the 
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•HRES 1777 IH 
spectrum of policies and practices that lead to school 
pushout; 
(2) commits to working to reduce or eliminate 
school suspensions (especially out-of-school suspen-
sions), expulsions, arrests, corporal punishment, and 
placements in disciplinary alternative schools by 
partnering with States, local education agencies, and 
schools to adopt and implement evidence-based and 
promising approaches to improve student engage-
ment and school safety, and recognizes the need for 
effective technical assistance as well as flexibility in 
supporting the accurate and durable implementation 
of these practices; 
(3) understands that proper behavior is not im-
plicit but should be taught explicitly starting from 
an early age and practiced, supervised, and recog-
nized throughout the pre-kindergarten through grad-
uation school experience; 
(4) acknowledges that educators and school 
leaders need effective, efficient, and relevant contin-
uous professional development, training, and support 
to effectively teach, encourage, and sustain those so-
cial skills and behaviors that characterize effective 
teaching and learning environments for students of 
all backgrounds; 
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(5) recognizes— 
(A) the need to streamline and enhance 
school climate and disciplinary data collection; 
and 
(B) that such data should be used in ana-
lyzing and revising school discipline policies, be-
havioral practices, and systems to produce bet-
ter outcomes for students and teachers; and 
(6) supports community collaborations and 
meaningful parental involvement to ensure that 
schools are safe, respectful, responsible, and effective 
teaching and learning environments that reduce— 
(A) the likelihood of violent school behav-
ior; and 
(B) the use of reactive, compliance, and 
punishment-oriented school policies and prac-
tices. 
Æ 
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