EDUCATION

For decades, education has been recognized as a pathway to youth success and wellbeing. Indeed, access to quality education can be transformative to the lifelong success of our young people. However, inequities permeate all levels of the school system, from pre-K to college. Those inequities are felt more even more profoundly when they fuel a 'school-to-prison pipeline'.

Learn more about how education can at once serve as a 'hook for change' and how disparate exclusionary practices within school settings may further entrench youth of color into the justice system.

Researchers studying justice-involved youth have connected education to desistance from criminal activity. In other words, remaining in school can work as a "hook for change".

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By contrast, when youth are excluded from the school environment, they tend to experience higher unemployment rates and higher rates of contact with the criminal-legal system.

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Access to quality education can be a transformative tool for equity.

Receiving a high-quality education is related to many lifelong benefits, including increased economic earnings, as well as improved physical and mental health.

However, when access to quality education is limited, consequences can be severe.

Like many other systemic processes, this exclusion has disparate impacts.

For example, research shows that "youth of color & youth with disabilities experience exclusionary discipline,

including expulsion due to zero tolerance policies, at higher rates than their white peers and peers without disabilities."

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"Nationally, school children lost over

11 million days of instruction... as a result of out-of-school suspension.

That's roughly 66 million hours

of missed instruction or more than

63,000 school years of lost learning."

Read the Full Report

NEW YORK'S STUDENTS

BY THE NUMBERS

New York State spent a total of $64 Billion on its primary and secondary students during the 2021-2022 academic year.

That's roughly $26,000 per student on average.

Data & Source

NYS Total Expenditure:

$

Average per NYS student:

$

In 2022, there were almost

2.5 million

primary and secondary school students in New York State.

This is how the data breaks out by race/ethnicity for those students >>>

Data & Source

Native American

~

Multiracial

~

Asian/Pacific Islander

~

Black

~

Hispanic/Latino

~

WHITE

~

In 2018, 202,000 students entered

9th Grade in New York.

By the end of 2022:

87%

of students in this cohort had graduated on time;

5%

dropped out;

1%

received their GEDs; and

7%

were still enrolled.

By 2022, when they reached Senior Year, Students with disabilities, English Language Learners (ELLs), Migrant Youth, and Youth in Foster Care had the lowest graduation rates in their cohort.

0%

Students with disabilities

0%

English Language Learners

Here is how the graduation rates for these groups of youth break out >>>

0%

Migrant Youth

0%

Youth in Foster Care

What about Postsecondary education?

Data & Source

In 2021, 186,000

students graduated high school in

New York >>>

18% went to two-year programs

50% went to four-year programs

Chronic Absenteeism

among New York Students

Chronic Absenteeism is a long-term problem with far-reaching consequences, made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Data & Source

During the 2021-2022 academic year, roughly one third of all students in New York were chronically absent >>>

Chronically Absent Primary school students

0%

Chronically Absent Secondary school students

0%

Wanna learn more?

THE NEW YORK STATE YOUTH JUSTICE INSTITUTE HAS HOSTED SEVERAL WEBINARS ON Education AND YOUTH (& other topics). >>>

Watch all YJI Lunch & Learn webinars

In March 2020, Dr. Lynette Tannis presented her work on educating youth in detention settings.

In July 2022, Victor Jones presented his work on education rights for youth with disabilities and exclusionary discipline practices.

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