WHEREAS, Our youngest learners deserve inclusive and supportive education spaces that nurture their growth and development and prepare them for their bright futures. For too many children, however, early learning spaces become sites of pushout and exclusion, the impacts of which can last a lifetime; and
WHEREAS, National research highlights that, despite no difference in young children’s behavior, preschools choose to exclude Black children through suspensions and expulsions at a rate 3.6 times higher than is imposed on their white peers for similar behaviors, and at three times the rate of K-12 exclusion; and
WHEREAS, Preschools choose to suspend and expel children with disabilities, largely for disability-related behaviors, at a rate 14.5 times higher than that of their peers without disabilities. Intersectional discrimination compounds these harms. Reports from the Education Law Center-PA and parent advocates reveal that preschool pushout is harming Pennsylvania’s youngest learners, particularly Black and Brown children and children with disabilities; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, Hereby authorize the Committee on Education to hold hearings examining preschool pushout, the practice of suspension, expulsion, and informal methods of exclusion of our youngest learners, to provide a space to hear stories from impacted families and identify solutions to ensure a bright future for all our young people.
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