Basic Facts

As policies that criminalize school misconduct have taken hold, dropout rates have risen. One third of Texas public school students drop out every year.

Students are more likely to drop out of school if they have a history of disciplinary problems in school.

The United States has the HIGHEST RATE OF INCARCERATION in the world.

Texas is the ONLY state in the nation to penalize 18- to 21-year-olds for truancy.

For adolescents, involvement in the juvenile justice system is the single biggest predictor of involvement in the criminal justice system as an adult.

It costs just over $7,000 to educate a child in public school for one year, and nearly $68,000 to incarcerate them.

HALF OF ALL students with mental illness drop out of high school. THREE-QUARTERS of those will be arrested within five years.

High school dropouts are three times more likely to be incarcerated than graduates.

African-American students are far more likely than white students to be suspended, expelled, or arrested for the SAME conduct.

Students in the U.S. are suspended and expelled at almost double the rate they were 25 years ago.