After a yearlong outcry from students and community members, the LA school board in February 2021 approved a plan to cut $25 million – a third of the school police budget – and shift those funds into a $36.5 million initiative called the Black Student Achievement Plan. The mission is to support the mental and academic well-being of Black students in the nation’s second-largest school district, adding 221 psychiatric social workers, counselors, “climate coaches,” and restorative justice advisers to schools with the highest number of Black students. The new staffers especially target campuses with higher rates of suspension, chronic absenteeism, and low student achievement.
The climate coaches help de-escalate conflicts and provide social and emotional support for struggling students. The district said the coaches would be residents from the communities that their schools serve. The restorative justice advisers help shift the schools’ disciplinary practices to focus on rehabilitation and reconciliation to address conflict and crime.
District leaders plan to release a midyear report on their progress to the school board in February. They’ll measure whether there has been an impact on student discipline, parent engagement, suspensions, and other outcomes.
Education Week reported in November that at least 49 school districts ended contracts with police or cut their budgets.At least a few shifted those resources to mental health support: In Madison, Wisconsin, four school resource officers were replaced by restorative justice coordinators. In New Haven, Connecticut, the school district hired more school counselors. And in Alexandria City Public Schools in Virginia, the district leaders reallocated funds to mental health services.
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