Tune in to ACLU panel featuring AZCIR’s Maria Polletta: Quantifying for the first time the extent of punitive discipline for truancy

It took almost a year to collect, analyze and interrogate the data used for “Education Suspended,” a first-of-its-kind effort to understand the scope of attendance-related suspensions in Arizona.

Dear Tim, I hope you can make time to tune in next week as AZCIR’s Maria Polletta joins a group of education leaders, an Arizona lawmaker and a student to discuss the impact of suspending students for missing class—a practice Maria exposed in 2022 as part of nearly yearlong collaborative investigation with Tara García Mathewson of The Hechinger Report. The panel discussion, hosted by the Arizona chapter of the ACLU and moderated by Dawn Shim with Support Equality Arizona Schools, will take place online from 3:30 - 5 p.m. on Friday, April 14. REGISTER FOR THE WEBINAR Maria’s statewide investigation, Education Suspended, analyzed data from nearly half of Arizona’s public school systems, quantifying for the first time the extent of punitive discipline for truancy. The project shed light on how the practice of suspending students who arrive late to class or miss it entirely further compounds learning loss, ultimately alienating students. It also found the discipline measures disproportionately affect Arizona’s students of color. Since the investigative series published in late 2022, our findings have gained statewide and national attention, including from top officials at the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights. We’ve heard from students, parents, lawmakers and advocates, including one parent who, after reading our series, had a suspension struck from her child’s record upon learning it violated state law. If you missed our reporting or are new to our newsroom, you can read more below, in both English and Spanish. EDUCATION SUSPENDED PART I: Suspending students for absences, tardies compounds learning loss Suspending students for missing class—whether it’s because they showed up late, cut midday or were absent entirely—is a controversial tactic. Yet, here in Arizona, the practice is pervasive, causing students already struggling with absenteeism to miss tens of thousands of additional days of school. READ MORE >   PART II: Civil rights at stake: Black, Hispanic students disproportionately blocked from class for missing class Black, Latino and Indigenous students are frequently overrepresented among those getting suspended for attendance issues, which some argue is a potential civil rights violation. Researchers have found such inequities in school discipline can contribute directly to race-based discrepancies in academic performance. READ MORE >    PART III: In wake of pandemic, some districts take less-punitive approach to absenteeism Though suspending students for attendance violations is widespread in Arizona, it is not universal—or necessary, according to school and district leaders who have found ways around it. They argue effective alternatives must make school a place students want to be, and treat absenteeism as a problem to solve, rather than a behavior to punish. READ MORE>   METHODOLOGY: Inside our analysis of Arizona’s attendance-related suspensions It took almost a year to collect, analyze and interrogate the data used for “Education Suspended,” a first-of-its-kind effort to understand the scope of attendance-related suspensions in Arizona. Here’s a closer look at how we did it, and the decisions we made along the way. READ MORE >

Whether you’re new to this newsletter or if you’ve followed our work for years, we hope you can join us for this important conversation. Thanks, as always, for following and supporting our work. Cheers, Brandon Quester Executive Director and Editor Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting DONATE