Teachers speak out about DPS disciplinary changes, union says more support needed

For years Denver Public Schools has been working to disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline changing how they students are disciplined, changes some teachers say have unintended consequences.

"There's a lot of red tape to get a child expelled," one teacher who asked to remain anonymous said.

A review of Denver Public school disciplinary policy shows significant changes. In 2017, a DPS student who committed robbery, first- or second-degree assault, sex assault, distribution of illegal drugs, or brought a dangerous weapon to school was automatically recommended for expulsion and was required to be referred to police. Now if a student commit any of those crimes, school staff can only conduct an expulsion review and there's more room for school security staff to not involve police.

"If a child has a gun in school, they are recommended for expulsion but then where do they go?" Robert Gould, President of the Denver Classroom Teachers Association, said.

Gould says public schools are asked to do more every year without the appropriate resources. Hundreds of students in DPS, he says, have behavioral or safety plans in place.

"Once we get that established what is it we can support the student with and that takes more people. that's the tough part a lot of the time we don't have people to come in.

Gould says before there were a wide range of options in the community, like treatment centers that they could partner with but those resources have been cut significantly.

As a union they are already discussing solutions with the district calling for more funding for public education to start.

"We need to look at our discipline matrix try to figure out what are those nonnegotiable pieces, what are those other supports we have in place and where do we need to back fill," he said.

For DPS families who would like to review current disciplinary matrix it is public and available online