Denver Public Schools is still inconsistent in the way it disciplines students, and minority students are more likely to be ticketed, suspended or expelled, according to a report released Thursday.
The report by Padres and Jovenes Unidos and the national Advancement Project created a report card based on the analysis of seven categories of discipline to assess the district’s progress since 2008 — when DPS reformed its zero-tolerance policies.
The district got a C-.
“DPS is to be applauded for its bold leadership and the progress it has made in addressing the school-to-jail track,” the report states. “However, it is time to honor the commitment embodied in the 2008 policy — and that of the students and community members who led this effort — by finishing the job.”
Today, North High School students who helped review the report are expected to grill Superintendent Tom Boasberg and ask him to commit to speeding implementation of policies already on the books.
“We’re a team, a community, so it’s important to make sure we’re all on the same track and get equal treatment,” said Teresa Ortiz, a sophomore at North.
The report gives DPS a failing grade for racial inequality, and a D on referrals to law enforcement, which have increased since 2008.
The highest marks the district earned were B’s in three categories: for reducing the number of out-of-school suspensions, for starting to reduce the number of expulsions, and for the success of restorative-justice programs in the schools most actively using them.
According to the report, students who participate in restorative justice — similar to a counseling session that aims to find root problems — are more likely to improve their attendance and behavior.
For Daneka Maestas, who graduated from North in May, seeing that change in herself spurred her toward a college major in social work.
“Before restorative justice, a suspension was a vacation,” Maestas said. “I wasn’t sitting at home thinking about what I did wrong because I didn’t care what I did wrong.”
But in her second year at North, when a fight resulted in a sit-down with the person she was fighting instead of a suspension, “I found out I had more in common with her than I thought.
“I realized we were fighting over dumb high school stuff,” Maestas said, “just a look.”
Padres Unidos and students said restorative justice could be the tool that helps close the disciplinary inequity gap if it were practiced at more schools.
DPS’s director of student services, John Simmons, said Thursday the district allows each school to decide how to address its discipline problems, whether by hiring a restorative-justice coordinator or by different means.
“It’s still embedded in our district policy,” Simmons said. “We have a consistency of expectations.”
Simmons said new data tools that may be available to principals by January, as well as ongoing support from the central district, should help better align discipline policies among schools.
Yesenia Robles: 303-954-1372 or yrobles@denverpost.com
