COALITION FOR CRITICAL CHANGE, Twin Cities

12/9/2014
From: Coalition for Critical Change
Re: Request for Data and Additional Action on Racially Disproportionate Suspensions and
Arrests in Minneapolis Public Schools
This is a follow-up to concerns over the school to prison pipeline expressed by the Coalition for
Critical Change at our School Board Candidate Forum of October 2014. In light of the recent
resolution agreement between Minneapolis School District and the Department of Educations
Office for Civil Rights, we are requesting the following information and actions.
Information/Data Requests:

A copy of the contract between the Minneapolis Police Department and the Minneapolis
Public Schools for the provision of SRO services, with a detailed break-out of number of
officers and related expenditures per school;
The most recent available data on school-based arrests including:

Total number of arrests by

o School
o Age/grade level
o Violation/offense
o Race/ethnicity
o Gender
o LGBTQ status (if known)
o Disability and/or IEP status (if known)

Total number of referrals to police and/or police escorts off school property by
o School
o Age/grade level
o Violation/offense
o Race/ethnicity
o Gender
o LGBTQ status (if known)
o Disability and/or IEP status (if known)

We are additionally requesting the following actions:

A complete moratorium on all school suspensions;

An acceleration of the SRO reduction plan with the goal of complete elimination of SROs
in the Minneapolis Public Schools by 2016;
A reallocation of funds from SROs towards social workers, conflict resolution specialists,
and other supportive personnel

We have also submitted this in writing, and are requesting the aforementioned data by January 2,
2015. Please respond via e-mail to Coalition for Critical Change.
Thank you for your consideration.