Preschool Suspensions Not OK with Connecticut The Center for Children's Advocacy was instrumental in writing and helping achieve passage of Connecticut Law Prohibiting Out-Of-School Suspensions and Expulsions for Very Young Children<http://www.cga.ct.gov/2015/ACT/PA/2015PA-00096-R00SB-01053-PA.htm>. Public Act 15-96 prohibits most out-of-school suspensions and expulsions for students enrolled in a preschool program or in kindergarten through grade two. KDLG Public Radio September 5, 2016 Every year, thousands of children are suspended from preschool. Take a second to let that sink in. According to the U.S. Department of Education, 6,743 children who were enrolled in district-provided pre-K in 2013-14 received one or more out-of-school suspensions. And that's just public pre-K. Still more children were likely suspended from the nation's many privately-run preschools and day cares. While most suspensions come as the result of a child's disruptive, sometimes violent, behavior, experts and advocates now argue that suspending a 3- or 4-year-old, no matter how bad the behavior, is a bad idea. "Expelling preschoolers is not an intervention," according to a policy statement issued earlier this year by the NationalAssociation for the Education of Young Children and endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics. "Rather, it disrupts the learning process, pushing a child out the door of one early care and education program, only for him or her to be enrolled somewhere else, continuing a negative cycle of revolving doors that increases inequality and hides the child and family from access to meaningful supports." But what to do? Answer: Study Connecticut. First, lawmakers there took a rare vote last year, limiting out-of-school suspensions for children from preschool through second grade. read story<http://www.kidscounsel.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/KDLG-CT-susp-law.pdf>