As part of a state-mandated strategy to stop the practice, Alief ISD authorities have retrained staff and implemented new rules to stop the unlawful suspension of homeless pupils.
Following the Texas Education Agency’s discovery that Alief staff members unlawfully suspended 15 homeless kids in 2022–2023—district administrators this week revealed the corrective action plan. After a May 2024 investigation by the Houston Landing revealed that hundreds of districts were still engaging in the practice despite a 2019 state statute that essentially prohibited it, state officials began looking into the illegal suspensions of homeless children around Texas.
Lawmakers used the fact that homeless kids depend on school facilities for food, restrooms, and other necessities as justification for adopting the legislation. In southwest Houston, Alief provides services to hundreds of homeless students.
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Cecilia Crear, the Alief Chief of Schools, stated at a district school board meeting on Thursday that this goes beyond simply fixing past errors. It’s about restating our obligation to assist all children in their academic endeavors, irrespective of the obstacles they encounter.
In August 2024, TEA leaders promised to review suspension data for the entire state and, if necessary, conduct additional inquiries into districts’ disciplinary procedures. The number of Texas school districts that have been forced to create corrective action plans was not immediately available for comment, according to a TEA representative on Monday.
Early this school year, a number of districts in the Houston region, including Alief, informed the Landing that they were making adjustments in response to the Landing’s inquiry.
According to Crear, the district was required to develop a remedial action plan in order to avoid a formal inquiry after the TEA initially informed it of the unlawful suspensions in the summer of 2024. In 2022–2023, Alief suspended 25 homeless children, 15 of whom were in violation of the law, according to a TEA audit. (Districts must suspend students for violations involving violence, weapons, drugs, or alcohol, regardless of housing status.)
Alief’s strategy mandates that all out-of-school suspensions now go via campus administrators and that district staff review student information databases prior to penalizing kids. In order to alert staff when they attempt to suspend a kid who meets the criteria for being homeless or housing insecure, the district also added a new digital alert number to its records system.
Houston schools crack down on illegal suspensions following Landing investigation
by Staff Writer Asher Lehrer-Small
According to Crear, district employees were trained on the district’s new procedures last month. Later this year, the TEA will send a state-appointed auditor to examine the district’s compliance with state law after conducting an internal audit.
Ultimately, Alief Board President Darlene Breaux told Crear on Thursday, “I appreciate that you did come up not defensive or trying to defend behaviors.” You just stated, “This is what it is, and this is not who we are,” when you arrived.
Although the district normally supports about 1,200 homeless children yearly, according to state data, Alief enrolled 843 homeless students during the 2023–24 school year, or about 2% of the total student body. The housing circumstances of students might change on a daily basis, and state data usually only records a single moment in time.
Alief’s district-wide suspension rate previous school year was 11 per 100 kids, which is lower than some districts in the Houston region with comparable demographics but higher than the state average of 7 per 100 children.
According to state data, homeless students drop out of school more frequently than nearly any other student group, and out-of-school punishments may interfere with students’ ability to learn. The use of suspensions in certain situations is still generally supported by legislators and school officials, who frequently point to the advantages for non-disruptive students and student safety.
Rick Moreno, a member of the school board, asked Crear if she could find out if the homeless children who had been unlawfully suspended came back to school after receiving their punishment. Crear said she could find out, but she didn’t have the information on hand right now.
“I’m concerned about those fifteen pupils,” Moreno stated.
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