Tell Congress to pass the Counseling Not Criminalization in Schools Act! SIGN NOW

Dear Friend,

In a time when the current administration is instructing the military and police to target Black, Brown, and immigrant communities, it is more crucial than ever to end the regular presence of law enforcement in our schools and invest in what actually keeps schools safe. Real school safety is about investing in student supports, that means investing in mental health professionals such as school counselors, nurses, and social workers. The regular presence of police in school environments continues to fuel the school-to-prision pipeline.

The U.S. is currently facing a nationwide shortage of school counselors and mental health professionals in public schools. 48 states currently exceed the recommended 250 students to 1 counselor ratio. Thus, resulting in counselors struggling to properly serve each student or not attend to them at all. In 2024, 17% of high school students did not have a school counselor, accounting for 653,700 students².

Take Action To Tell Congress To Pass The Counseling Not Criminalization in School Act!

In place of school counselors, police are contracted by school districts to monitor students and respond to any and all conflicts. Data tells us that when police are present in schools, students are 5 times more likely to be arrested for incidents that would be better handled by the school administration and trained mental health professionals. Police do not have the proper training to address these conflicts and police interventions set students up for entering the juvenile and criminal legal systems unnecessarily.

It’s Time We Invest In School Counselors and Nurses for Our Students! 

The Counseling Not Criminalization in School Act is federal legislation that would encourage schools to divest from police in schools and invest in mental health professionals such as school counselors, psychologists, and nurses.

Yes, we want schools to be safe but there is no evidence that increasing the number of police in schools improves school safety. Instead, it takes critical resources from what keeps schools safe and helps ALL kids thrive. 

There Are More Police Than School Counselors In Public Schools. We Can Change That!

As our country experiences an urgent youth mental health crisis, the data shows that more than one in three high school students said they experienced persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, and one in five students seriously considered suicide.

Restorative approaches would include:

• More mental health staff and counselors, 
• Social-emotional learning, and 
• Trauma-informed care in our schools.

When we invest in school counselors, nurses, social workers, and psychologists who are trained to support children, and in schools, we see improved attendance rates, better academic achievement, higher graduation rates, and lower rates of suspension, expulsion, and other disciplinary incidents.

The presence of school-based mental health providers doesn't just improve outcomes for students but also improves overall school safety.

The Counseling Not Criminalization In Schools Act is an important step towards shifting resources away from practices that harm and push kids out of school into what helps students thrive, keeps schools safe, and ends the criminalization of kids in schools. Support and protect children and future students by backing this important legislation. 

Thanks for all you do, 

--Kelsey, Diarra, Beatriz, Monifa, Kristin, and the whole MomsRising.org & MamásConPoder Team

P.S.– Do you have a moment to tell Congress to invest in public safety and pass the People’s Response Act

References: 
[1] https://www.nilc.org/articles/caught-in-an-educational-dragnet-how-the-school-to-deportation-pipeline-harms-immigrant-youth-and-youth-of-color/ 
[2] https://www.nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/schools-need-more-counselors
[3] https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/metrocenter/ejroc/ending-student-criminalization-and-school-prison-pipeline

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