Gov. Newsom must decide whether to expand ban on student suspensions for 'willful defiance'

For state Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, the issue is clear-cut: no student should be pushed out of school for relatively minor misbehavior. If students aren’t in school, she says, they can’t learn — and are more likely to end up in deeper trouble, or even ending up in the “school to prison pipeline.”

That’s why she is once again trying, now that she has the Legislature’s approval, to convince another governor to sign a bill she authored, SB 419, to expand a ban on suspending students for disruption of school activities or “willfully defying” school authorities. Under current law, the state already bans suspensions for willful defiance in kindergarten through 3rd grade. Skinner’s bill would widen the ban to grades 4 to 6, with a trial five-year ban in grades 6 to 8 as well. Students could still be removed from the classroom for willful defiance for up to two days as long as they didn’t have to leave the school, and participated in what is called an “in-school suspension.”

https://edsource.org/2019/gov-newsom-to-decide-whether-to-expand-ban-on-student-suspensions-for-willful-defiance/617238