Acknowledging the progress made

It is easy to look at racial disparity in the juvenile justice system and believe the issue too big or overlook small steps of progress.

That's why we feel it's important to acknowledge the important work underway in the Iowa City Community School District.

During the 2012-2013 school year, nearly four times as many African American students and two times as many Hispanic students as white students were removed from class and sent to the office for disciplinary issues.

The vast majority of these referrals were for the following seven issues: defiance/disrespect, tardiness, disruption, truancy, inappropriate language, fighting/physical aggression or other inappropriate behaviors.

A contingent from the school set to work, reached out other agencies in Iowa and beyond and developed a set of significant and specific goals to address the issue. Two of those were to reduce suspensions for defiance or disrespect by 50 percent and to reduce referrals for tardiness by 75 percent. They made progress on both of those goals in the first and second trimesters of this school year.

The district has not yet announced how, or if, changes have affected the ratio of minority students being referred, but referrals, overall, are down significantly.

The district saw a 34 percent decline in the number of office referrals - from 4,038 to 2,663. Total suspensions were decreased by 48 percent, and referrals for tardies decreased by 53 percent.

Calls to law enforcement related to student misbehavior were slashed by 50 percent.

While these improvements are significant, the Core Management Team, comprised of staff and community members, understands the overall problem of disproportion remains despite the overall declines.

And, more important, the district, area law enforcement, county juvenile justice systems and regional non-profits have joined hands and pledged to continue to battle.

Working together with such single-minded focus will bring further progress and success.

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