Advancement Project National Office Supports New Counseling Not Criminalization Bill
Media Contact:
Gina Physic, 202-505-4659, gphysic@advancementproject.org
Lawmakers today introduced a bill to help schools cut ties with police. Under the Counseling Not Criminalization Act, Federal funding would be prohibited from being used to hire, train, or keep law enforcement in schools. In addition, the bill would create a $2.5 billion grant program to replace police in schools with school psychologists, social workers, and other staff who are suited to help support mental health and provide trauma-informed services to young people.
The Senate version of the Counseling Not Criminalization Act was introduced by Senators Chris Murphy and Elizabeth Warren. Congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Ayanna Pressley introduced the House version.
“Having long advocated and worked for the complete removal of police from our schools, the legislation introduced today is a huge step in the right direction,” said Judith Browne Dianis, Executive Director of Advancement Project National Office. “Recent forward motion in the #PoliceFreeSchools movement would not be possible without the years of organizing by Black and Brown young people and organizers. The youth organizations we support across the country understand how crucial it is to abolish police presence in schools, and they have been urging this kind of radical movement across school boards for years. We applaud the lawmakers working to ensure that Federal funding can no longer support police in schools or the criminalization of our young people.”
Advancement Project National Office has worked on education justice and school safety issues with young people of color for more than 20 years. In 2018, Advancement Project National Office released We Came to Learn: A Call to Action for Police-Free Schools. The report calls for the removal of police from schools and envisions schools where Black and Brown students are afforded the presumption of childhood that they deserve. Policing in schools must be supplanted by divesting from militarization and investing in community-building strategies that not only improve the quality of safety for students of color, but the quality of their educational experience.
To learn more about the work Advancement Project National Office is doing to ensure #PoliceFreeSchools, visit:
Advancement Project National Office, founded in 1999, is a next generation, multi-racial civil rights organization with a mission to fulfill America’s promise of a caring, inclusive and just democracy.
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