How we choose to discipline students is so important because suspensions have become the chief predictor of high school dropouts. The correlation between suspensions and dropout rates is strong, and the relationship between dropout rates and incarceration is undeniable. Youth who do not graduate from high school are eight times more likely to go to prison.28 Within federal and state prison populations, 41 percent do not have a high school diploma or GED. In local jails, 31 percent have not completed high school or its equivalent. And 68 percent of those in prison do not have a high school
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