In testimony delivered today at a New York City Council joint-committee hearing on school safety and student discipline, the New York Civil Liberties Union urged lawmakers to strengthen the reporting requirements in the Student Safety Act – a 2011 city law that requires regular reporting by the DOE and NYPD on school safety and disciplinary issues, including student suspensions and arrests. Specifically, the NYCLU asked council members to reduce the amount of redactions the city Department of Education (DOE) makes to suspension data released under the Student Safety Act.

Thanks to years of aggressive organizing and public education led by youth, parents, teachers and advocates, the number of arrests and tickets issued at New York City public schools declined during the fourth quarter of 2012, according to data released today by the Dignity in Schools Campaign-New York and the New York Civil Liberties Union. But while the decline is good news, disparities in arrests and tickets remain shockingly high with black and Latino students bearing the brunt of the NYPD’s school discipline policies.

New York City public schools reported 69,643 suspensions in the 2011-2012 school year, according to new Department of Education data released Friday afternoon. The figure represents a 5.2 percent decrease from the 73,441 suspensions reported in 2010-2011, which may reflect recent revisions to the DOE’s Discipline Code and efforts to train teachers on positive disciplinary approaches. However, the rate of suspensions is still more than double what it was at the beginning of the Bloomberg administration.

College students who registered to vote but had their applications denied by Republican Commissioner Erik Haight will be able to vote in tomorrow's presidential election, a federal district court judge ruled from the bench late Monday afternoon.

Four college students have filed a federal class action lawsuit against the Dutchess County Board of Elections to protect the fundamental right to vote in next week's presidential election. The students -- who attend the Culinary Institute of America, Marist College and Bard College -- registered to vote and provided both street and mailing addresses, but had their applications denied by Republican Commissioner Erik Haight because they either did not provide the technical name of their dormitory buildings or their room numbers on their applications.

Many public school districts across New York State provide sex-ed instruction that is inaccurate, incomplete and biased, according to a report released today by the New York Civil Liberties Union that analyzes sex-ed materials that have been used in 82 public school districts.

NYPD School Safety Division personnel arrested or ticketed more than 11 students each day in New York City public schools during the 2011-12 school year, according to an analysis of NYPD school safety data released today by the New York Civil Liberties Union and the Dignity in Schools Campaign-NY. For the year, more than 95 percent of arrests were of black or Latino students; 74 percent were of males; and 1-in-5 was of students between the ages of 11 and 14.

New York’s over-reliance on high-stakes standardized testing harms students, teachers and public schools, with especially harsh consequences for high-need students and the teachers and schools that serve them, according to a letter signed by more than 1,100 New York State professors and released Wednesday by the New York Civil Liberties Union.

In written testimony submitted today, the New York Civil Liberties Union encouraged the Department of Education to mandate positive-discipline practices in New York City's public schools, and cautioned that zero-tolerance policies in the discipline code deprive children of their right to an education and discriminate against students of color and those with special needs.

In response to the decision by administrators at P.S. 195 in Queens to prohibit a fifth-grade student from delivering a speech on same-sex marriage, the New York Civil Liberties Union today issued the following statement, which can be attributed to NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman: “This is a clear case of censorship that violates this child’s First Amendment rights. Schools that act as if any mention of the existence of gay people is something too controversial or ‘sensitive’ to discuss are doing a disservice to their students.