education

Between 1994 an 2003, the number of students permanently excluded from public education in Massachusetts more-than doubled.

Expulsion has had a disproportionate effect on minority students.

For those students who were expelled, there is no right to ever obtain education in the public schools.  On the contrary, once a student is expelled, no school in Massachusetts is obligated to accept the student into any of their programs.

On Tuesday night, President Brack Obama called for compulsory school attendance across the nation. But simply making school attendance mandatory is to overlook a real blight on our system of secondary education.

In Massachusetts, where I practice law, a child who is expelled from her school is denied the ability to attend any school in the entire state. Ever.  It seems draconian, shocking, and unbelievable.

But it's true.

School exclusions are on the rise. There has been an increasing tendency to handle school offenses in the courts, to exclude a child from school for picking up a court case, and to institute zero-tolerance policies that result in school exclusions as the preferred form of discipline.