Bipartisan Missouri bills aim to ban out-of-school suspensions from pre-K through 3rd grade

As a student in Hickory County R-1 school district, state Rep. Ian Mackey often struggled with following the rules of a classroom.

“My way to express myself was usually really loud and really invasive,” said Mackey, D-St. Louis. “There were a lot of teachers who wanted to send me home, and in some cases did.”

For Mackey, getting sent home often meant packing up and going to another classroom — one of his parents, who were both teachers in the same school district.

“My parents being teachers in the building probably saved me from a lot of out-of-school suspensions,” he said.

https://news.stlpublicradio.org/education/2022-02-06/bipartisan-missouri-bills-aim-to-ban-out-of-school-suspensions-from-pre-k-through-3rd-grade