Empowered Education

One of DDMA's focuses is teaching parents how to break the School to Prison pipeline effect that happens when students are excessively disciplined through school zero-tolerance policies. These compounding incidents are detrimental to the child's education (time out of class), and may eventually lead them to juvenile or adult incarceration. Moreover, this Pipeline disproportionally affects low-income and minority students and, to an even greater degree, those with disabilities.

For Students:

• Increased likelihood of future criminality.
• Lower academic performance and achievement levels, not prepared for life
• Harsher disciplinary actions for minimal misbehavior, leading to negative psychological impacts.

For Families:

• Strain on family relationships due to the absence of a family member.
• Financial burden from legal fees and lost income.
• Emotional distress from dealing with the legal system and potential stigmatization.

For Communities and Society:

• Loss of productive and contributing members to incarceration.
• Reinforcement of negative stereotypes, stigmatization of certain groups, and perpetuation of systemic inequalities and discrimination.
• Diversion of resources from education and community development plus increased costs associated with higher incarceration rates.

Beginning in January of 2025, DDMA and partner organization the Honey Brown Hope Foundation (Houston), will launch a pilot program to have experienced education advocates be paid a ‘low-bono’ rate to provide no-cost consultations (via Zoom or phone) to at-risk Texas families who have students facing disciplinary action in school, or who may otherwise be not receiving the appropriate services. We are seeking to raise enough funds so professional advocates can perform 100-125 free hour-long consultations to at-risk families, while still being paid up to 50% of their normal hourly fee.

As advocates and activists, we have seen many times that when parents simply have the right information and use a confident, prepared approach, it can dramatically improve outcomes for their children in school. By prepping the family on how to best leverage their student and parental rights in a given situation, parents and guardians can shift the conversation away from discipline toward what the student needs to be successful.

Additionally, DDMA and its partners will present four Empowered Education workshops across the state, with at least one of being presented entirely in Spanish. All sessions will be hybrid events, with in-person and virtual options, plus on-demand for later viewing.