Black children in Georgia’s schools make up just over 37% of students but represent well over half of all out-of-school suspensions, expulsions and assignments to alternative schools, according to a new report by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The report, titled “Only Young Once,” proposes six policy reforms to reduce harm and rehabilitate young people in the state. They include making nonviolent offenses non-jailable and ending the use of zero-tolerance policies that can lead students to be suspended for minor infractions, like vaping.
Delvin Davis, senior policy analyst at SPLC and author of the report, said incarcerating a child also comes with a big price tag.
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