The Preschool to Prison Pipeline: What It Means for Children with Brain-Based Medical Conditions and their Moms.
- Sara L
- Feb 17, 2024
- 5 min read
Updated: Feb 19, 2024
The Preschool to Prison Pipeline: What It Means for Children with Brain-Based Medical Conditions and their Moms.
During my clinical rotations with UCSF, I worked at a psychiatric clinic in Skid Row, Downtown LA, serving the homeless. It was there that I met Jeremy*, a wonderful gentleman in his mid-60s. We were called out to assess Jeremy and determine if the clinic's services would be a good fit for him. Jeremy was tall and gray with kind blue eyes and a wicked sense of humor.
As we discussed his medical history and the events leading to his homelessness, I inquired about his childhood and schooling. He shared that he never enjoyed school and found it challenging. When asked in what way, he explained that he had a hard time sitting still, ran around the classroom and disrupted lessons. This behavior drove his teachers crazy, leading to frequent trips to the principal's office and suspensions. His parents took him to see a doctor, and he was prescribed Ritalin. "My behavior improved, I could sit still and listen," he said, "but I still found school work hard, and my teachers didn't really help out. I felt like a failure."
Eventually, he started skipping school and dropped out altogether at the age of 14. At that point his parents kicked him out, and, no longer under the care of his Doctor, he stopped taking Ritalin. He spent time with the wrong crowd, engaged in stealing, and ended up in jail, followed by prison.
Throughout this interaction, I observed his expression—a genuine sadness for years lost to incarceration, missed opportunities and the failure of a school system that was not informed enough to help him shine.
The Preschool-to-Prison Pipeline poses a significant risk to children with brain-based medical conditions. ADHD, autism, specific learning disabilities and behavioral dysregulation impacts childrens’ ability to fully engage with their school work, classmates and teachers in a way that the school system deems ‘normal’.
Some children are sent out of the classroom thanks to ‘zero tolerance’ policies. Other children may just be left to struggle academically and voluntarily remove themselves from school before graduation, just like Jeremy. Just under 70% of all incarcerated US men do not have a high school diploma¹ while 66% of all incarcerated individuals in the US have a diagnosis of ADHD⁵.
Children with brain-based medical conditions may not receive the support they need to flourish, and their unique skill sets and strengths are never identified. Instead behaviors that children have no control over are penalized and punished. Children and their families are sent the message ‘you do not belong here’.
This begins as early as preschool and is happening all over the country. In New York, 37% of all preschoolers with disabilities did not receive the services they were legally required to be provided with by the Education Department during 2021–2022² In 2016, 250 preschoolers were being suspended or expelled from school every day³ . This was happening at a time when their experiences with the educational system were supposed to be laying the groundwork for future academic success and social emotional development. The consequences can be devastating.
Given the shortfalls of the US public school system, I wanted to provide mothers with strategies to help them advocate for their children, starting with empowerment and education.
I do not believe that this responsibility should solely lie on the shoulders of mothers. This is a problem that society needs to address as a whole, but until society catches up, here is what you can do as a mother:
Understanding childhood brain based medical conditions
Your child’s healthcare provider is a great place to start. They should be able to point you in the direction of accurate and easy to understand articles and handouts regarding diagnosis and treatment/therapy options, created specifically for parents. Ask them for resources. Administrative staff should be able to source these and email them to you.
If not, please check in with this blog weekly as I will be updating information and providing clear and concise explanations of childhood brain-based conditions. It will be helpful for you to understand what happens in the brain to cause these conditions. I will cover what can be done to support your child in terms of traditional medicine, alternative and complementary medicines (CAM), and therapy options. Becoming familiar with what to do if the treatments are not working will also be covered. My goal is to make you the expert.
Recognizing when their symptoms start to cause issues
You are the frontline observer of your child’s behavior. Recognizing worsening of their symptoms in impulse control, sensory sensitivities, emotional control, and social communication is important. Identifying flare ups in their behavior early can help you loop in school administration, educate, and advocate effectively, before your child is forcibly removed from the classroom for ‘bad behavior’.
Building a Buddy System for yourself:
Building a strong support network with other mothers provides emotional understanding and knowledge sharing. Local and online communities, such as Mommies In Mind, that focus on education about brain based medical conditions can offer guidance and community.
Understanding your Legal Protections:
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)⁴ is a Federal law requiring all US public schools to provide free and ‘appropriate’ public school education. Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) are put in place to assist children with brain based medical conditions including Autism, blindness, deafness, emotional dysregulation, intellectual disability, ADHD, seizures, Tourettes, Specific Learning Disability, speech or language impairment and Traumatic Brain injury.
By comparison 504 plans are not covered under IDEA, but under another law called The Rehabilitation Act of 1973. These only cover accommodations, such as being seated near the front of the classroom, being provided with audiobooks or extra time on tests. It is also provided for free by the US public school system.
If your school is not following either law above, file a complaint with your district’s Special Education Administrator. The Department of Education then has 60 days to investigate and resolve your complaint.
Promoting Restorative Practices:
I don’t think it is fair to place this particular task solely on the shoulders of mothers. This is a community-based issue and should be a community-based effort coordinated between schools, parents, healthcare providers and therapists.
As a mother, promoting restorative practices means meeting with administrators, teachers and policy makers. The goal is to encourage schools to understand why children behave the way that they do. This begins with education, ideally led by healthcare providers to emphasize understanding of the root causes of behavioral issues related to brain based medical conditions. Restorative practices, when done right, can significantly reduce the likelihood of punitive measures such as suspensions and expulsions that contribute to the preschool-to-prison pipeline.
Conclusion
Mothers of children with brain based medical conditions face distinctive challenges in navigating the US public school system. This is a deep rooted punitive educational issue impacting children as early as preschool. Through learning about your child’s brain based medical condition, reading up on relevant laws and encouraging partnership between schools, healthcare providers and therapists, mothers can push for positive changes within the US public educational system and safeguard secure, fair futures for their children.
Click here for a handy visual roadmap summary of this post.
¹ https://ed.stanford.edu/in-the-media/schools-v-prisons-educations-way-cut-prison-population-op-ed-deborah-stipek#:~:text=Nationally%2C%2068%20percent%20of%20all,jail%20are%20actually%20push%2Douts.
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