Supporting School Systems to make the Shift to Stop being the Nexus into the Prison Pipeline

The Citywide Effort to Address Implicit Bias in School Discipline initiative was launched to reduce the number of black school-aged Houstonians in the criminal justice system by creating an aligned vision of equity in school discipline and juvenile justice policies and practices.
This effort, led by organizations including Mental Health America of Greater Houston, Leadership for Educational Equity’s One Houston, Harris County Juvenile Probation, City of Houston’s Mayor’s Office, Bloomberg Associates, and Houston Health Department’s My Brother’s Keeper Houston, launched in October 2019 with a multi-sector implicit bias training led by Rev. Dr. Bryant T. Marks, attended by over 100 leaders across the city of Houston.

In the six months following, 600 voices were embedded in a decision-making process that led to the development of nine recommendations aimed to address the inequities in school discipline and prioritize the well-being and mental health of our students. This panel will discuss 9 Recommendations made by the cross-sector Citywide IB workgroups. It will, also, unpack how these recommendations are rooted in the understanding that mental health and behavioral health are not equitably provided to students of color.