The Lay Advocate Training Program in Prince George's County, Maryland

    .-1 
"\._/ 

NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND, INC. 
10 Columbus Circle, New York, N. Y. 10019 • JUdson 6·8397,~ ·. · 

~)··: 

A Report on 

THE LAY ADVOCATE TRAINING PROGRAM 

IN 

PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, MARYLAND 
\ . 

during the 1974-75 School Year 

sponsored by 

The Division of Legal Information and Community Service 

November 1975 

Con1ribwio111 are deductible for U.S. incoMe,,,., purpo1e1 



INTRODUCTION 

Chapter I • 
. 

Chapter II. 

Chapter III. 

,CJ 
Chapter IV. 

'. Chapter v. 

·:' Chapter VI. 

Chapter VII. 

Appendix A. 

Appendix B. 

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CONTENTS 

THE POTENTIAL OF LAY ADVOCACY IN THE SUSPENSION 
CRISIS 

RECRUITMENT 

TRAINING 

HOW THE PROJECT WORKED 

ADVOCATES IN THE SUSPENSION CONFERENCE 

LEGAL BACKUP FOR LAY ADVOCATES 
,. 

CONCLUSIONS AND FINDINGS 

THE LAY ADVOCATE TRAINING PROGRAM RADIO ANNOUNCEMENT 

THE TRAINING PROGRAM AGENDA 



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r 

INTRODUCTION 

The suspension and expulsion of children from public school·. 

is a national problem of serious dimensions which has a dispro-

portionate impact on black children. According to data collected 

by the Department of Health, Education and W~lfare's, ·Office for 

Civil Rights, during the 1972-73 school year more than one million 

students were suspended from school at least once. As a group, 

black children are suspended twice as frequently as any other group 

of children. Sixty-eight percent of the disctricts in the HEW/OCR 

survey reported a higher rate of black student suspensions than 

that of white student suspensions. Twenty-nine states suspended 

over 5 percent of their total black enrollment while only four 

states suspended 5 percent of their white students. Six states 

suspended 10 percent or more of their black students but none of 

the states suspended white students at that rate.* 

There has been a growing concern about disciplinary practices 

that have resulted in both temporary and long term exclusion of 

black children from public school. Black parents are increasingly 

questioning why their children are being suspended more frequently, 

for longer periods and for different kinds of offenses than white 

*The HEW/OCR survey included only 2,862 districts represent­
ing more than 50% of the total school enrollment in the 
Nation and almost 90% of the minority school enrollment. 
See Children's Defense Fund, School Suspension: Are They 
Helping Children?, pp. 63, 67-69. (1975). 

' ' 



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children, The absence of d.ue process in suspension and expulsion 

procedures is increasingly being challenged on· ·constitutional 

grounds. Local school systems and some state boards of education 

have, either voluntarily or under pressure, r~vised their regula-

tions to meet the growing objection to the arbitrary and vague 

standards governing how school officials control student deportment. 

Even the Federal Government has come to recognize that it has a 

responsibility where there is prima facie statistical evidence that 

t'O. :..:. 
·.'.'· .. black students are disproportionately affected by suspension and 

expulsion practices. HEW's Office for Civil Rights, which ad-

ministers Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, has embarked 

on a very modest compliance program to ~nvestigate citizen com-

plaints of racial discrimination in school suspensions. While 

OCR's compliance program is not sufficient to address the issues 

even in a dozen or so school systems, it is at least a recognition 

() that the racial impact of school exclusion practices raises issues 

of compliance with federal law. 

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inq. (LDF) 

has sought to protect and advance the rights of black students in 

the courts. However, LDF recognizes that because of the slowness 

of the constitutional test litigation process and the shortage of 

lawyers in many local communities there are often no immediate 

i 
remedies available for the thousands upon thousands of black chil-

dren who are daily suspended and expelled from public schools. 



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Days, weeks, and even months of schooling are lost. Additionally, 

even if students are returned to school, they may continue to be 

subjected to the arbitrary and capricious disciplinary actions 

of principals and teachers. Acting on their own to prevent sus-

pensions, black students and their parents appeared to be losing 

the battle against this rising phenomenon. 

Realizing that legal action alone could.not adequately pro-

tect the rights of the suspended students, LDF wanted to determine 

how local citizens could be mobilized to respond to the problem 

of suspensions and expulsions where an attorney was not available, 

or where one was not actually needed. Therefore, during the 1974-75 

school year, LDF's Division of Legal Information and Community Ser-

vice launched a pilot project - The Lay Advocate Training Program -

in Prince George's County, Maryland. The objective of the pro-

ject was to develop a strategy for lay advocates to represent 

() suspended black pupils and their parents in dealing with school 

officials. 

Alarmed over the increasing number of black student sus--

pensions, LDF chose Prince George's County·, Maryland, to launch 

its experimental lay advocate program. Black students constituted 

approximately 31 percent of a total enrollment of 151,000 in the 

county. Since the 1972-73 school year when the public schools 

were desegregated pursuant to court order, the trend indicated 

that both the number and proportion of suspended black students 



had been on the rise. During· the 1974-75 school year, 52 percent 

of the the total 14,000 suspensions were imposed.on blacks, and 

57 percent of the students who received•long :term suspension (in 

excess of five days) were blacks. Over half of all su.spensions 

during that year were for non-dangerous, non-violent offenses, 

such as insubordination, disrespect, continued class disruption; 

smoking and truancy. In the wake of the bounty-wide desegregation 

order, school discipline became a major political issue. Conserva-

() tive forces on the school board led demand~ for. rno~e.suspensions to 

bring discipline to the classrooms. 

We were aided in our efforts because the Prince George's 

County Branch of the NAACP had already organized the Suspension As­

sistance Project to respond to the growing number of complaints it 

had received from parents of suspended students. The Suspension 

Assistance Project agreed to work in conjunction with LDF by 

(~ utilizing the lay advocates whom we would recruit and train. We 

joined forces and the role of each agency was defined. The Sus­

pension Assistance Project agreed to provide supervision of the 

lay advocates and consultative services to LDF. We committed our 

Lay Advocate Training Program to the recruitment and training of 

the lay advocates who would represent suspended students and their 

parents during conferences with school officials. The chief role 

of the advocate would be an attempt to get the suspended student 

back in school in the shortest time possible. 



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This joint venture operated in two phases during the last 

school year. The first phase, August to November 1975, was a modest 

effort to train a few NAACP volunteers to perfonn as lay advocates 

and to test whether their participation ih suspension.conferences 

would be accepted by the.school system. By November, LDF had gained 

some limited experience with the use of.lay advocates anq had raised 

funds for the program. LDF commenced recruitment for new advocates, 

and in January 1975 began a full-scale training program which con-

e-) tinued until June 1975. At the conclusion of the project, we re­

ceived an evaluation of the program from the supervisor and each 

of the lay advocates. 

Additionally, in November 1974, LDF filed a law suit against 

the Prince George's County public schools which charged that the 

system's suspension policies and practices violated the constitution­

al rights of.black children. As a result of the suit, the By.stem 

~ has now amended some provisions of its Code of Student Conduct. LDF 

continues to monitor t~e implementation of the revised Code. 

The report which follows is a description and evaluation of 

the project which we hope will prove to be a useful, tested vehicle 

which will assist local citizens in dealing with the problem of 

suspensions and expulsions. We also trust our findings will encourage 

other local groups to maintain sustained efforts to ~ake school sys­

tems respond creatively to diversity in student bodies and to chal­

lenge the arbitrary and unconstitutional denial of education and 

the banishment of minority children from the classrooms. 



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LDF gratefully acknowledges a grant from ·the Eugene.and. 

Agnes E. Meyer Foundation, Washington, D.C., which enabled LDF 

to launch the Lay Advocate Training Program. Appreciation is 

also e~tended to the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial, Washington, D.C., 

which granted a Fellowship to Ms. Elois Hamilton, director, Sus­

pension Assistance Project. She!also se:QVed as a consultant to 

LDF. Ms. Phyllis McClure, director, LDF's Washington office, co­

ordinated the Lay Advocate Training Program and Ms. Shirley Lacy, 

LDF' s national office staff member; .conducted the initial 'Erain­

ing sessions. 



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I. THE POTENTIAL FOR LAY ADVOCA~ IN Tij:E SUSPENSION CRISIS 
\ 

Several professions have begun to recognize that trained para-

professionals can assume ·.task that are ordinarily required of a 

doctor, a lawyer, or a teacher. Laws, ·policies, o·r regulations 

governing administrative procedures often provide that lay people 

can represent aggrieved persons at hearings. Most school sys-

terns require a conference with the· principal or other officials 

before a suspended student can return to school. These suspension 

0 conferences, or hearings lend themselves to the use of paraprofes~ 

sionals. A hearing b.efore a panel of school administrators or the 

school board may also be required when a suspension is appealed, 

··,:·· or if the charge against the student is of a serious nature. At 

.· .. these hearings, the right of a suspended student to legal counsel 
I 

is frequently acknowledged and is sometimes essential to protect 

the student's legal rights. Lawyers, however, may not be needed 

Q at the early stages and legal representation is usually not re-

quired for the vast majority of non-serious suspension incidents. 

Sus·pension conferences, at least at the initial stages, are 

informal meetings between the principal, the parent and the child. 

Here, lay representation can be quite helpful to the parents and 

the students, although some school policies may not explicitly 

provide for such representation. The parent and child feel re-

assured to have the support and advice of a knowledgeable advocate 

who may know more about the disciplinary rules than the principal 

and the teacher. The presence of an advocate can add a new 



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dimension for unlike a pa.rent and a. student, the advdcate may be 

less intimidated by a school official's authority. The advocate 

can familarize the parent and the student of their rights and how 

to exercise them without the use of an attorney whose presence might 

present a thre.at to the principal and other officials. 

We anticipated that our project would be a successful vehicle 

for securing the readmission of suspended chi.ldren without undue delay 

and bureaucratic proscrastination. If the child were not immediately 

0 readmitted, the lay advocate would know.how to appeal the suspension 

to a more formal hearing and refer the case to a lawyer if that 

0 

were necessary. Most suspensions can be resolved at the initial 

stages, thereby relieving the parents of the burden of finding and 

hiring an attorney for in most low-income, minority communities 

the legal resources to handle the ordinary variety of suspension 

cases are not available. 

The Lay Advocate Training Program was specifically designed 

to use volunteers from the community for if our experiment were to 

have any chance of being replicated in other communities, it would 

have to demonstrate that volunteers could be mobilized as advocates 

of suspended students. We did not consider recruiting a paid staff 

for fis9al resources in black communities are very limited. Furtqer­

mere, in most areas, community action and legal services programs 

have either ~een eliminated or severely retrenched. Emergency School 

Aid Act grants to private, non-profit groups are not available 



0 

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to many conununity-based, grassroots organizations and private funds 

are not easy to secure. 

While volunteers are the mainstay of many conununity institu-

tions, lay advocacy requires a non-traditional voluneeer. Tradi-

tional volunteers for the PTA bake sale, the church dinner, or the 

day care center are not usually expected to make a sustained conunit-

ment of time or to acquire technical knowledge of a quasi-profes-
1 

sional nature. Lay advocates are on call during the entire school 

year. They must undergo training and make a conuni tment to a•· sus-

tained effort. They must keep appointments on time and in many 

ways, lay advocates must possess, or acquire professional skills. 

Traditional volunteers are most often middle-class house-

wives with time to devote to their neighborhoods and this resource 

is often not available in low-income and minority conununities. 

Although working people are not usually recruited for conununity 

Q service, we wanted to find employed people to serve as lay advocates 

to determine whether their involvement in the program could be a 

realistic use of non-traditional volunteers. Men are another 

-sour.ce of non-traditional volunteers since they are far less 

likely to have been involved in school affairs. We viewed. male 

. lay advocates as a model for boys· to 'emulat~, and we also antici-

pated that there.might be some cases that could be handled 

much better by men. For example, if a male child is suspended 



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for allegedly cbI11111iting sodomy, his faroily might be more at ease 
' 

with a male volunteer. 

One of the two men in the Lay Advocate Training Program.had 

never performed any volunteer work. Duri.ng his initial interview, 

he made it clear that he would participate only if the program would 

be a serious effort,.coI11111itted to achieving results·that:would··.af~ 

ford him an.opportunity to become really involved, His attitude 

is indicative of many volunteers who reject meaningless projects 

which ar.e not serious about achieving specific goals. 

Volunteers cannot be dealt with casually. If they are expected 

to give their time. to a program, they must be genuinely involved 

in a structured effort, and their work must be supervised. Volun-

teers who are underutilized, or who are working in a vacuum will 

soon lose interest. Lay advocates will be successful only if they 

have good coordination, directio.n and support. 

We were certain that parents, seeking help for their sus-

pended children, would welcome the assistance and expertise of 

lay advocates. We were less certain, however, about how the 

advocates would be received by principals and other school a,uthori­

ties. The Lay Advocate Training Program and the Suspension As-

sistance Project operated on two assumptions: (1) ·that parents 

could have advocates present at suspension conferences:· (2) 

that the advocates would have to learn how to overcome any of-

ficial objections to their presence. Prior to the start of the 



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program, we did not contact the Prince George's County School 

District to seek official consent for the in~olvement of the advo­

cates. However, past experience with the school system indicated 

that the officials would not be totally negative to this approach. 

During the previous school year, Elois Hamilton had attended sus­

pension conferences so we had reason to believe that the school 

system would raise no fundamental objection to other advocates 

participating in conferences with school officials. 

The potential for lay advocates in the suspension crisis, 

as we conceived it from the beginning of the .Lay Advo~ate Training 

Program, was largely borne out by our experience. Non-traditional 

volunteers were found and the lay advocates handled many cases 

which did not require the services of a lawyer. They were success­

ful in getting suspended children readmitted, often in less time 

than parents could have done on their own. Advocates were accepted 

by school officials, although grudgingly at times. 

In the end, the use of volunteers had an impact that we had 

not anticipated. The lay advocates reported that their volunteer 

status was a positive asset in dealing with school officials 

since their role implied a dedication and commitment to students' 

rights which a paid staff person might not have. 



() 

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Il. RECRUITMENT 

LDF began its search for lay advocates by developing criteria 

for the kind of people we considered temperamentally suited for the 

role. We wanted mature, sensitive adults who were genuinely con-

cerned about black youth. Those with rigid, doctrinafre attitudes . . . 

could not, in our judgment, be open-minded and sensitive in dealing 

with parents, children and school officials. Competent and pre-

cise fact-finding could not be expected from someone who had pre-

judged the situation and had already formed a conclusion. We recogni-

zied the need for advocates who could deal with authority f~gures 

without being intimidated, and who, if hostile confrontation erupted, 

could stick to their position while maintaining their composure. 

We realized that on some occasions the lay advocates would have 

to challenge the statements and/or actions of principals, teachers 

and other officials but would have to do so without being tinneces-

sarily provocative. 

From each of the recruits, we exacted a commitment to the 

project. ..They had to agree to ·serve 10 to 15 hours per week. And 

b~cause we felt S() .(iltrQ:a,gly aJ:;>out not using i,mtrained, untested. 
' . . . . ' . ·- ' -. ' 

people in.the program, €ach ~ecruit had t9 consent to participate in 

the training sessions. We considered only the recruits who had 

the use of a fully insured automobile which would be a necessity 

for them because of meetings with parents, students and school 

officials in widespread areas at odd hours. Although previous 



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experi,nce was not required for the lay advocate position, fortun­

ately two of the NAACP volunteers had handle·d suspension. conferences 

with school officials during the, first phase of the project. Ad-

ditionally, a third person had been active in her local community 

in helping suspended students return to school. 

The majority of the people we interviewed were either fully 

employed or actively looking for a job. But because we were not 

certain that fully employed persons would be available for the 
("'1 
\__j training session or be able to attend suspension conferences during 

the day, we looked for people who.had I}ightbr part-time jobs, or 

those whose occupations permitted flexible hours. (We actually 

found an insurance salesman but he failed to show up for the first 

training session.) As our project progressed, our concept proved 

to be the right one since parents usually learned of their child's 

suspension at the end of the school day and the ideal situation 

c=) was to schedule the suspension conference the next morning. 

To aid us in our search for candidates, we asked the NAACP 

to identify branch volunteers or other persons who had expressed 

an interest in education. Additionally, two black radio stations* 

provided free public"service announcements. We also asked the local 

community agencies for recommendations but soon learn that these 

*A copy of the announcement given to the radio stations is 
attached as Appendix A. 



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agencies viewed our program as a means of training their own staff. 

Because we were convinced that an.advocate had to have.a single 

commitment and since some community agencies staff members were al-

ready working in the schools, we decided to eliminate this source 

of recruitment. Thus, our lay advocates .were recruited through the 

NAACP contacts and the radio announcements. 

LDF's project coordinator interviewed each of the recruits. 

Our criteria for participating in the pr~ject were fully detailed. 

Q We questioned each applicant about his commitment to students' rights 

and particularly the deprivation of a child's right to an education 

without due process. We asked if. recruits had previous experience 

in dealing with school principals or other au~hority f~gures and 

how each applicant felt about the issue of school discipline. 

We stressed that we were not seeking those persons who felt that 

a principal's actions should never be questioned, or that a student 

() should never pe suspended regardless of what he did. The project. 

·.required open-minded persons who c.ould gather the facts.;- •and then 

attempt to take the necessary remedial action. 

Based on our assessments of those· interv·iewed, elevel persons 

were chosen for the training session. Of the eleven, two did not 

attend the January training program and one dropped out because 

she was unable to work and function as a volunteer advocate at the 

same time. 

Thus, the Lay Advocate Training Program· consisted of eight 



0 

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persons. There were two black men, four black women and two white 

women: 
I 

Jane Bender had worked for several years as a volunteer 
for P'l'A's, neighborhood .citizens' associations, Model 
Cities, and United Givers Fund; She is a housewife 
with six grown children. 

carol Fulton was a NAACP volunteer and looking for a 
job. She had previously been a school teacher, al­
though not in Prince George's County. 

Barbara Greenspan had just graduated from college. She 
was seeking employment and considering law school when 
she heard about the Lay Advocate Training Program on 
the radio. Near the end of the school year, she found 
a full-time job, but she continued working as an advocate. 

Maudine Morris became a l~y advocate after she learned 
about the Suspension Assistance Project when her own 
son was suspended from school. She worked at Sears 
from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., four days a week• 

Martha Tavlor was a housewife, active in her own com­
munity and the NAACP. She is a member of the Capitol 
Heights Town Council. 

Rolline Washington's own children and other neighbor­
hood children had been suspended. She got involved 
on her own helping students to get back into school, 
and her activity brought her to the attention of the 
NAACP. Subsequently, she was employed full-time.by 
the NAACP. 

Leroy White, a minister and night guard, was involved 
in a ntimber of community and youth activities as well 
as national advocacy movements. 

Richard Whiting was on disability leave and looking 
for less strenuous employment. He had no previous 
experience with school or community activities. 



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III. TRAINING 

The January training program*, a three day retreat which 
., 

removed the advocates from their daily responsibilities, enabled· 

the recruits to concentrate on learning their new task. The re-

treat also affored the advocates the opportunity to build a 

cohesive group which would be able to work together in the coming 

months. The advocates were reimbursed for their travel expenses 

and for child care necessitated by their absence from home. 

() The initial training program, conducted by Shirley Lcicy of 

LDF's staff, was designed ·to impart specific knowledge and develop 

advocacy skills which would be needed in repr~senting students and 

parents at suspension conferences. In order· to give the advocates 

some idea of the conceptual framework in which they wo.uld be function-

ing, there were lectures and discussions on the legal status of 

students' rights, the meaning of due process, and the difference 

Q and relationships among constitutional rights,' state laws, and a 

school system's discipline rules. 

A consultant from the Children's Defense Fund gave an over-

view of suspensions as a national phenomenon and explained why 

children were suspended and the impact the exclusion from school 

had on their lives. Three law students who had spent the summer 

studying the Prince George's County Code of Student Conduct gave 

*The agenda of the January Training Program is attached 
a·s Appendix B. 



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a detailed examination of t.he Code. They identifi'ed its flaws as 

well as those provisions that would enable advocates to get sus-

pended children back into school. Other sessions analyzed the role 

of lay advocat~s vis-a-vis students, parents, school pffisia~s and. 

lawyers. Advocates learned techniques of interviewing parents and 

students, identifying relevant facts and maintaining adequate records. 

Also, we used actual role playing exercipes as a primary 

means of developing advocacy skills. Each of the participants was 

C-:\ assigned a part to play - that of an advocate, a child, a parent, a _j 

principal or a teacher. An actual suspension situation was des-

cribed. The "actor" played out a real life situation for 10 to 

15 minutes, then the training director stopped the proceedings 

and the players returned to the group. In this way, both the 

"actors" and the observers could critically access the dynamics 

in the skit and evaluate the role each person performed. 

0 Despite the intensity of the initial training program, we 

realized that we could not prepare lay advocates for the day-by-

day situations they would inevitably face. We recognized that 

the "training" sessions for the sharpening of skills and the dis-

semination of current information must be a continuous process. 

Therefore, we built into our project bi-weekly, in-service training 

sessions. These sessions were planned and chaired by the co-

ordinator of the Lay Advocate Training Program in conjunction with 

the director of the Suspension Assistance Project. 



1!3 

Although agenda!!! for these meetings were.prepared in advance, 

most of the bi-weekly discussions .were dictated by what the advo­

cates wanted to discuss and the information they required. At' one 

of the first sessions, the issue of parents' access to school re­

cords came up. In response to this, LDF prepa,red a two-page sum­

mary of the pertinent portions of the Family Educational Rights 

and Privacy Act of 1974. At the next meeting, the summary was dis­

tributed and there was a discussion regarding the procedures the 

~) parents should follow to inspect records, how misleading or in­

accurate information could be removed and how to challenge the 

failure to remove such information from the child's folder. Another 

discussion centered on the procedures a parent should pursue when 

a teacher had struck a child and the parent wanted to file charges. 

Ms. Hamilton was able to describe the proper procedures to follow 

and to relate the problems which the NAACP had encountered in get-

<:__,) ting the state attorney's office to act on similar complaints. 

New and pertinent developments which would be directly rele­

vant to the advocates' work were brought to their attention. When 

the Supreme Court decided Goss v. Lopez, an important students' 

rights case, copies of the decision were given to each advocate, 

and LDF's coordinator pointed out the language in the opinion 

that advocates could use with principals. When the superintendent 

of schools issued amendments to the Prince George's County Code 

of Student conduct in March 1974, they were thoroughly discussed 



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at one meeting. 

Perhaps the most important function. of the,on7 thr-jpb train~ 

ing sessions was to give the advocates the opportunity to des~ribe 

the suspension cases which they handled, the problems they en-

countered and the results of the conference. Advocates frequently 
I 

raised questions which were troubling them. One woman, for examp~e, 

asked whether she should always insist that suspensions were im-

proper even though in one case she personally felt that the suspension 

() was legitimate. Another question concerned what an advocate should 

do if neither parent was willing or able to go to scho.ol for the 

suspension conference. In cases where a juvenile petition had been 

filed against a suspended student, should advocates take the position 

th.at thE7 student should be allowed to return to school pending the 

outcome of the juvenile court proceedings? How could advocates 

convince school officials that a child in that situation should be 

() presumed innocent until proven guilty? 

Also, the bi-weekly sessions afforded Ms. Hamilt.on an op-

portunity to discuss the project operations with the advocates. 

She answered.questions and suggested strategies for dealing with 

families and school officials. Her knowledge of the school sys-

tern's personnel, policies and practices provided invaluable advice 

about how to address a host of problems which the advocates en-, 

countered. For example, Ms. Hamilton knew which official records 

were maintained, the rules regarding bus transportation and the. 



. :· 

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functions of pupil personnel workers and school psychologists. 

During these sessions, the project director was able to provide 

the guidance and.direction which she was not always able to provide 

on a daily basis because of her busy schedule. 

Additionally, two special sessions were devoted to techniques 

for organizing parents and students to cope with the suspension 

issues. Advocates were encouraged to find out-o.f-school students 

in their own neighborhoods and to make kr!own to their communities 

() the existence of the Suspension Assistance Project and the avail­

ability of advocates. One advocate decided to hold a workshop in 

her own neighborhood. With the help of two other advocates, she 

planned and conducted an evening meeting which focused on sus­

pensions and other school-related problems at a partl.c~lar h:i,.gh 

school in the county •. 

At the conclusion of the- Lay Advocate Training Program, 

<:_) LDF asked Ms. Hamilton and the advocates to evaluate all aspects 

of the program. From their comments and criticisms and from our 

own observations, we learned a good deal about what constitutes 

a strong training program and in which areas LDF's project was 

weak. In the advocates' opinion, _the diversity and complexity 

of suspensions were underestimated and their major criticism was 

that the initial training program did not adequately prepare them 

to cope with.the realities of the suspension problems. Advocates 

needed much more concrete information and assistance in order to 



21 -

resolve· the problems which led to a ehild' s 11uspension·. Greater 

emphasis should have been placed on the organization and resources 

of the school system. Advocates should have been apprised of the 

various programs and agencies in the county which could help young 

people, such as work-study and evening programs, high school equiva-
' 

lency classes, and mental health and counseling clinics. People 

who run such programs, as well as school·security guards, pupil 

personnel workers and school psychologists should have contributed 

0 to the training session in January •. In. retrospect, a(lvocates felt 

that the training was too theoretical anc;l npt sufficiently practical. 



0 

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IV. HOW THE PROJEC'l' WORKED 

, 
The LDF trained advocates were assigned cases and supervised 

by the Suspension Assistance Project's director. The Project was 

located in the office of the Prince George's County NAACP. Extra 

telephones were instal.led to handle calls from the parents of : 

suspended students who either called because they had heard about 

the project or because they usually turned to the local Branch 

whenever they needed advice. 

A Branch volunteer or Neighborhood Youth Corps worker served 

as the project receptionist and took the calls from the parents. 

On a form specifically designed for the purpose, basic information 

about the suspension was recorded including: the name of the 

parent, the student, the school, the principal; the family's ad­

dress and telephone number; the length of, and reason for 'the SUS-

pension; when the.suspension occurred; whether a conference had 

C-_) been scheduled. Once the suspension complaint form was filled 

in and turned over to the director, she assigned the case to an 

advocate. 

The information on the form was relayed to the advocate who 

then called the parents to set up a meeting in order to obtain 

as much information as possible about exactly what had occurred. 

The advocate and the parent then made arrangements for a conference 

with the principal at the earliest possible time. 

After the conference, the advocate was responsbile for 



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reporting back to Ms. Hamilton to tell her whether the student 

was back in school or whether there were additional problems to 

be resolved. If any aspect of the suspension violated the school 

system's suspension code, the advocates referred the matter to 

the director for a possible appeal to the Director of Pupil Ser-

vices in the Prince George's County school.system. Advocates 

' ' 
were expected to complete the suspension complaint form so that 

' : . . 

there would be a record of the matter and the steps take~ t9 

c:> resolve it. 

Advocates, however, were not assigned to every case. Some-

times Ms. Hamilton decided that a telephone discussion with the 

parents would be sufficient. Her judgment was based on knowledge 

of the school, the nature of the suspension, or assessment 6f 

whether the parent could handle the suspension without an advocate. 

If the suspension was of one or two days duration, if the incident 

/-, 
\.__) was a trivial one, or if the parent sounded fully prepared to 

handle the conference, she would inform the mother or father about 

the pertinent.parts of the suspension code· and offer guidance on 

how to handle the conference. Parents were asked to call back after-

wards to report whether the .child had been readmitted. The number 

of calls on any particular day also determined whether the case 

was handled over the phone or not. Because she knew the school 

personnel involved and when her sched.ule permitted, Ms. Hamilton 

attended the suspension conferences .. She also handled the 



. ,; .: . 

- 24 --

more difficult cases involving indefinite suspensions for serious 

offenses. As the advocates gained experie~ce, they too were able 

to deal with the more serious cases. 

The Advocate and the Parent 

A cardinal rule of the suspension_Assistance Project was that 

the advocate should attend the suspension conference only at the 

parents' request. Virtually all parents welcomed assistance, but 

advocates made sure that parents understood their role and wanted 

{.-.., 
\._) their help. Ms. Hamilton believed that parents should know of their 

right to have an advocate at meetings with school officials so that 

if an advocate's involvement were challenged, the parent could 

firmly and convincingly say: "Mrs. Smith is here at my request." 

potentially embarrassing situations could be avoided by adhering 

to this rule. An advocate did not want to purport to represent 

someone only to be disavowed in the suspension conference. Other 

(-~) parents might only want information and prefer to handle the matter 
"-~ 

themselves. Or, one parent might have sought an advocate's help, 

but the other parent wanted no outside assistance. Whatever the 

situation, advocates had to recognize when they were not wanted. 

In those circumstances, it; was sufficient for the advocate to 

tell the family: "These are your rights and your child's rights. 

Call me if I can help." 

Meeting with the parent and the suspended student before 

the suspension conference was an important part of the advocate's 



- 25 -

' ' 

job. The advocate sought essential, basic information: 

1. What was the child's explanation,of events that 
led to the suspension? Who was involved? Was 
there an investigation or a chance·· for the stu­
dent to explain his side of the 5tory? 

2. What reason did the principal give, for the 
suspension? How was the parent notified? Were 
the notice and other aspects of the suspension 
proper under the regulations? 

Based on this information, the advocate made a preliminary 

assessment of the situation and discussed with the parent and child 

(~) how'best to approach the suspension conference. It was important 

for the advocate to understand what resolution the student and 

parent desired. The advocate did not urge that the child be re-

admitted to the school from which he had been suspend'ed if the 

parent wanted the child transferred to another schopl, or if, the 

student did not want to return to a regular school program. In 

cases where the family did not want the child returned to his 

,.,--, 
l_) original school, an appointment with the appropriate school official 

was made to evaluate other educational options, such as a transfer 

to another school or to adult education or summer courses in order 

to make up lost work. If there.were differences of opinion within 

the family about the best solution, the advocate tried to present 

all of the options and help them decide on the best one. 

Once the family and the advocate had decided what to do, 

the advocate assisted the parent in obtaining an immediate appoint-

ment for a suspension conference. If the suspension notice re-



- 26 -

ferred to a,date·severai days hence, the advocate adv:j.sed the 

parent to obtain an earlier appointment s 0 as not to delay the 
I ' 

child's return to school. The advocates were often successful 

in cutting through bureaucratic red tape and procrastination by 

insisting that suspension conferences be held inunediately. 

Advocates learned how important it was to obtain the full 

story behind the suspension. All too frequently there were under-

lying and unresolved problems which had.to be addressed, suc::h as 

0 learning difficulties, personality conflicts, misunderstandings, 

insensitive teachers, or just plain lack of imagination on the 

part of school personnel about how to cope with'children's needs. 

In addition, advocates found that they had to be sensitive to the 

possibility that the child and his parents might be reluctant to 

tell the full story for fear that the advocate would be less willing 

to help if the student had a poor behavior record in school. For 
~, 

(_) instance, one advocate related how he had challenged a principal' s 

apparent failure to correct a student's behavior by means other 

than suspension, only to be told for the'first time by the principal 

that several alternatives had been tried previously without success, 

Advocates were not instructed to contact pupil personnel workers 

or principals prior to the suspension conference, but when they 

did advocates often learned useful information and they could 

better gauge what the attitude school 'Officials were likely to have 

about a child returning to school. 



·. - 27 -

Good rapport between the lay advocate and the family en­

couraged open and candid communication which enabled the advocate 

to ·learn the full circumstances surrounding the child's exclusion 

from school. Advocates reported that they had to exercise great 

tact and diplomacy in dealing with many family situations.' In the 

interest of establishing relationships of confidence, they had to 

refrain from being judgmental about how parents raised their chil­

dren. At the same time, they did not feel constrained from making 

C:) suggestions they thought would be helpful in the parent's or child's 

dealing with school officials! Some advocates decided on their own 

to call the. family a few days after the suspension conference to 

find out how the child was getting on in school. An advocate's 

interest in the child after the suspension was resolved helped 

(~) 

to convince the child and his parents that someone outside the 

family was sincerely interested in his success in school. 

The Advocate and the Student 

The advocates discovered that frequently they were the first 

adult who ever sat down and listened to the student tell why the 

suspension occurred. Advocates probed to find out whether the 

child was telling the full story. Advocates sometimes found that 

a student was withholding facts or distorting events either be­

cause he feared his parents' anger or because he had a grudge 

against his teacher. Most suspended students, however, were willing 

to tell what had happened because they felt they had been treated 



28 -

unjustly. At the suspension conference itself, advocates were 

often helpful· in assuring that students had a full opportunity to 

tell their side of the story and voice their opinions·. 

In the great maj9rity of cases handled by an advocate, the 
I 

suspended student was immediately returned to school. If the advo-

cate believed that the suspension was improper under the Code, or 

if the principal refused to readmit the student, the Project either 

wrote an appeal or assisted the parent in writing their own appeal. 

C) Even if the student had returned to school, the appeal brought to 

the Director of Pupil Services' attention substantive or procedural 

violations, such as an improper suspension notice, failure to con-

duct an investigation prior to imposing the suspensio~, or a 

teacher's verbal or physical abuse which had provoked the student. 

Tw.o of the most ·common circumstances that required appeal were 

(1) a principal's refusal to readmit a suspended student until he 

(_) had a psychological or neurological examination, and (2) high 

school students who were suspended and told they could not come 

back to school. Time after time, we saw children with very real 

educational and behavioral problems who had been excluded from 

school with the entire burden placed on the parents to find help 

for their child. Suspension appeals attempted to get the school 

system to take responsibility for helping the family resolve the 

problems and for finding an appropriate educational placement. 

Many parents sought the P,roject' s assistance because they 



0 

- 29 -

had become :frustrated in their attempts to deal with the school 

system. Advocates reported that vi·rtual.ly' all parents were very 

grateful to have their support and assistance.. The following 
I 

comments are typical of how parents felt ~bo.ut th~ lay advocates: 

"If it.hadn't been for her (the advocate), my son 
would not have returned to school as soon as he did." 

"One grandmother told me," wrote an advocate in his 
evaluation, "that as a result of my presence, her 
grandchild was finally getting the services he needed.·" 

One mother reported that as a result of an advocate's 
involvement, not only did her daughter get placed back 
into the music class from which she was suspended, but: 
she agreed to practice more because the advocate took 
the time to talk with her about the benefit of learn­
ing to play a musical instrument. 

* * * * * * 
The experiences of the Prince George's County lay advocates 

provided valuable insights about what is required to mount an ef-

fective program of advocacy for suspended. students. 

l. A full...:time director and good administration are abso-

lutely essential in order for advocates to do a competent job. 

The fact that the Suspension Assistance Project did ~ot always 

operate with maximum efficiency impaired the effectiveness of lay 

advocates. Sometimes parents' calls were not responded to and 

cases were not assigned promptly. The telephone receptionist did 

not always get accurate information about the suspension. Complete 

records were frequently not maintained and as a result th~ director 

did not always know what the assigned advocate had done or what 

the outcome of the suspension conference was. Advocates sometimes 



- 30 -

did not follow up on cases. The quantity and quality of the ad-

vocates' work was directly effected by the extent to which full-

time supervision was provided. The work of the advocates faltered 

when the director did not provide full-time supervision. 

Many of these problems could have been corrected by good 

office'management and full-time direction. Additionaly, we learned 

that everyone, including the receptionist, should have participated 

in the training program~ Even so, we underestimated the amount of 

() time required to operate the program, stay in touch with eight 

advocates, write appeals, deal with crises, and attend meetings 

and workshops. In a school system with as many suspensions as 

Prince George's County, there should have been more full-time 

staff to serve as backup for the advocates. The advocates them-

selves felt that there should have been an assistant director in 

the office to keep the project running smoothly and to stay abreast 
,--, 
\,__) of the myriad of details involved in suspension cases. 

2. We also underestimated the amount of time that advocates 

had to spend on many suspensions. No one had fully appreciated in 
-. 

the beginning how complex and involved the problems of suspended 

students could be or the obstacles which parents would face in 

getting their children back in school or obtaining help for special 

problems. Advocates keenly felt the need for greater guidance 

from the director, more knowledge about how to cope with the 

school system bureaucracy, and a training program more relevant 



·.·· 
·· .. , . . ....... · . 
. ."·· 

- 31 -

to their needs. What surprised us, howeve~, was that while advo-

cates found some assignments very time~consuining, they reported 

that .they were underutiliz·ed. They were so committed that with 

more efficient central management, supervision and followup, 

.advocates could have handled more cases than they·ciid. 

3. The lay advocates found themselves playing many r<;>les 

which had not been anticipated. Not only did the advocates try to 

be a faithful representative of students' and parents' rights, but 

() they also performed the services of fam~ly friend and advisor, 

guidance counselor, mediator, and facilitator of communication be-

tween school and the family. Their task was an extremely sensitive 

one that demanded great skill and judgment. At the same time, 

they had to be mindful of the limits of their position. Advocates 

should not tell the principals how to run their school, take over 

the parents' role in a suspension conference or give· legal advice •. 

(=) They had to recognize situations they could not handle and when 

to seek other help. Above all, the advocates should do nothing 

which would jeopardize future relations between the family and 

school or the child's well being once he had returned to school. 

Advocates quickly learned their own most appropriate style 

of dealing with parents and school authorities. Each suspension 

conference required a different approach. Advocates.had to know 

when to question the appropriateness of the suspension, when to 

be conciliatory, or when to be persistent. They had to learn not 

• 



- 32 -

to be hasty in making judgments, but not to be afraid to express 

carefully considered opinions. Our experience indicated that recruit-

ment of mature, sensible and flexible people is crucial to a lay 

advocacy program. 

4. Prompt attention to calls from parents was important if 

advocates were to have adequate time to prepare for suspension con-

ferences. When cases were assigned at the ~ast minute, advocates 

had little or no time to contact the family prior to the conference. 

(J 
Establishing good rapport with the family, listening to the stu-

dent's story, and preparing for the suspension conference were vital 

to competent advocacy. The advocate who did not meet with the family 

could not possibly know what was involved in the suspension and 

what would be required to resolve the problems which contributed 

to the student's exclusion from school. 

5. Advocates must have financial resources to do their job. 
(~ \ 

\__) LDF reimbursed the advocates for their mileage when they visited 

a suspended student's home, attended suspension conferences and 

participated in project-related meetings. In addition to travel ex-

penses, they should have had small amounts for out-of-pocket expenses, 

such as lunches or snacks. Volunteers should not have to use their 

own funds, for example, if they want to buy a snack for a parent 

and child after leaving the suspension conference. 

Despite the mistakes, the frustrating problems, and the amount 

of work involved, the volunteer advocates performed admirably. They 



- 33 -

helped us define more clearly what wa11 actually involved in being 

an advocate of suspended students and what the limits and potential 

of lay advocacy are. They made LDF more acutely aware of the problems 

of children excluded from school and the need for a conununity pro­
. I 

ject to address their needs. 

6. The NAACP's Suspension Assistance Project did not keep a 

total record for the full 1974-75 school year of all the re.quests 

for assistance which were received and the number which were handled 

() by telephone or in any other manner which did not involve an advo-

cate. Ms. Hamilton has estimated that requests averaged about 30 

cases a month and that the lay advocates handled 105 cases, 88 of 

which involved a conference with a school official. 



() 
~--

- 34 -

V. ADVOCATES IN THE SUSPENSION CONFERENCE 

Suspension conferences range from informal meetings with 

the principals to more formal sessions before a committee of school 

officials who are empowered to uphold or revoke previous disciplinary 

decisions. In the name of "helping the chil~ adjust," educators 

presume that they alone have the prerogative of defining the scope 

of the suspension conference and dictating to parents the nature 

of their relationship to the schools. The purpose of the conference 

from the educators' point of view is to discuss the child's behavior, 

not to challenge or question school officials. This view explains 

why they want to avoid any situation which might be adversary in 

nature. Since the conference is considereP. a private affair, no 

third-party or lay advocate is thought to have a place. If an "out-

sider" appears, educators frequently attempt to limit the scope ·of 

their participation. 

This essentially paternalistic view of suspension conferences 

is best expressed in the Prince George's County Code of Student 

Conduct: 

"The conference established to resolve a student, sus­
pension is properly regarded as a guidance conference. 
Although the conference is, in part, addressed .. to re­
solving the status of the suspension of the student, 
it is not a legal proceeding or adversary hearing; 
and its agenda will often extend beyond the immediate 
circumstances of the suspension to a broader considera­
tion of the student's total adjustment to school, his 
home and community relationships (if pertinent) and· 
the overall efforts of the school and home to help the 
student achieve his education. In these respects, the 
suspension conference is not unlike other parent-school 



- 35 -
, 

conferences, focusing on an open and frank exchange of 
views relative to a student's well being, and at times 
including discussion of confidential information perti­
nent only to the parties immediately aff'ected'by same. 

"To preserve the relatively informal. conference atmo­
sphere, and the opportunity for. full and' frank discus­
sion in a confidential setting, it is preferable to 
limit participation in the conference to the immedi­
ate school personnel and the student and parents. It 
is recognized, however, that other parties may have 
information relevant to the circumstances involved 
in the suspension, or the student's conduct in general. 
Such parties may be admitted to the confe+ence for a 
portion of time to share such input by mutual consent 
of the principal or his agent, and the parent. 

"At the administrative appeals level, the student and 
parents have the right to be represented by l~gal 
counsel of their own choosing, provided the parent or 
legal guardian present gives their verbal consent for 
such representation, or if absent, gives written con­
sent for such representation. If students and parents 
are represented by legal counsel, however, the con­
ference shall not proceed unless Board of Education 
counsel is present. 

"Nothing herein, however, to be so construed as to pro­
hibit a parent from bringing an observer of his own 
choosing to any of the above cited conferences." (sic)* 

The Prince George's County lay advocates faced a school sys-

tern that, at best, tolerated their presence in suspension conferences 

as passive "observers." The Suspension Assistance Project chose 

not to make an issue over what lay advocates were called as long 

as the school system acknowledged the right of parents to bring 

one to the conference. 

Despite opposition from some principals, the advocates sue-

ceeded in participating in every suspension conference where they 

*Prince George's County Public Schools, Code of Student Conduct, 
page 7. 



0 

- 36 

were requested. There were various reactions to their presence: 

"Who are you? Are you a lawyer? What is an advocate?" .A few 

principals told advocates they could not participate at all, or 

tha·t they could be present but not speak. Once advocates and 

parents had overcome initial opposition, school officials sometimes 

announced gratuitously - "You may speak, but only as· an observer." 

Such reactions suggest that principals feel threatened by the pre­

sence of advocates. 

While .the lay advocates were prepared to deal with hostile 

principals and to assert that parents and students had every right 

to have them present, other principals raised no objections. Some 

principals actually asked for, and welcomed, suggestions from ad­

vocates. In one instance, a principal who had initially been 

hostile thanked the advocate for the helpful role she had played. 

Whatever the principal's attitude, the advocates did participate 

(~ and spoke up when needed. 

One of the most important jobs which the advocate performed 

in the suspension conference was to insure that all the facts and 

circumstances leading to the suspension were discussed and that 

the student and his parent had an opportunity to present their 

views or question the school officials' actions. They discovered 

that often ~he student had a different version of the events which 

had led to the suspension. For example, .a principal might have 

acted based on what a teacher, a security gua~d ·or a bus driver 

\ 



- 37 -

had reported without investigating the incident. When all parties 

had a chance to explain their version, the, advocate often inter-

vened to question why suspension was necessary, why the incident 

could not have been handled differently, or whether school authori-

ties had taken any actions short of suspension to correct behavior 

or problems. 

Advocates found that they often.had to get school officials 

to examine why the student acted. as he did and to focus on the 

(-) reasons for a child's behavior i~ an attempt to remedy underlying 

causes. A suspended student might not have been entirely in the 

wrong. A teacher's hasty and ill-considered action might have pre-

cipitated the child's behavior, or one student out of many might 

have been singled out for discipline. On the other hand, if the 

child had been a persistent problem in class., parents frequently 

had not been told or given an opportunity to work with the school 

c~-\ to correct misbehavior. Whatever the reason for the suspension, 
._j 

the advocates learned that it was important to have all the 

circumstances considered and the facts placed in their proper 

perspective. 

The advocate's next task was to persuade ·the principal to 

readmit the student immediately. Sometimes that was easily ac-

complished. The principal was satisfied that he had made his point 

and the problem had been resolved. At other times, the principal 

was less willing to let the student back in school. A typical 



38 -

example was of a junior high school boy who had received a ·five 

day suspension which had been extended to 10 days. The suspension 

conference was held on the seventh day. After the circumstances 

surrounding the suspension had been fully aired, the principal 

announced that the youngster could r.eturn to school on the eleventh 

day. The advocate contested his decision. After several minutes 

of discussion, the principal relented. The boy could come back 

the next day. But the advocate did not give up. Since the con­
(\ 
"-) ference was taking place in the morning, why, she argued, could not 

the student go directly to his next class. Her position prevailed, 

and he was back in school immediately. 

All suspension conferences were not that easy. When the 

principal was unyielding, an advocate could always appeal to his 

reason by asking what purpose would be Eierved by continuing the 

suspension. If a student had learned the error of his ways, why 

not let him come back to school. If the principal wanted the student 

to transfer to another school, the advocate would point out that 

petitions to the transfer committee took time and that the child 

should not be denied an education during the process. Or, if there 

were only a few more weeks of the school t~rm, the advocate could 

argue that it did not make sense to keep the student out of school 

because his work would be jeopardized. 

The advocate had to know the Code of Student Conduct and use 

it when it was helpful in making a point •. The Prince George's County 



- 39 -

code, for example, specifies which offense~ Cjln_· result. in short term 

(5 days or less) suspension and which result in long term (10 days 

or more) suspension. It also provides that the age and maturity 

of a child should be taken into account when determining the length 

of the suspension. Whatever argument the advocate could find was 

employed to convince the principal. If.none of them worked, the 

advocate, parent and child would have another opportunity to present 

their case before the regional director ot pupil services or before 

the Suspension Appeals Committee. 

While the advocates' purpose was to persuade the principal· 

to readmit the student, the circumstances, to which the pupil was 

returning had to be considered. Here the advocate might offer sug-

gestions as to what the school or the student might do to remedy 

underlying and often long-standing problems. It might have been 

something as simple as a schedule change, provision for special 

(~) counseling, or a wor~-study program which would enable the student 
i 
I 

to continue his educ~tion. 
I 

Although a number of suspensions were unwarranted, the lay 
I 

advocates in Prince George's County encountered suspended students_ 

who had a history of behavior problems that gave school authorities 

ligitimate cause for concern and where suspension was used as a last 

resort. Such situations presented the lay advocates with their 

greatest challenge. If educators had.tried everything, what• could 

a lay advocate suggest that would make a real difference? The 



- 40 -

f~ustrated mother had turried to the Suspension Assistance Project 

for help in finding some solution to her child's' persistent diffi~ 

culties in school, and the advocates with little or no experience 
I ', \ ·.! t 

found themselves trying to solve frustrating problems. These were 

the assignments that involved hours and days of work for the advocate 

as well as the project director. Their knowledge of resources within 

the school system or co11U11unity was sometimes helpful. In the end, 

they might have been able to make some small contributio~ t9 f ~nd-

() ing the right source of assistance for the family: 

Advocates found that return to school was not always the most 

appropriate solution. The student who had been suspended or had 

dropped out one or two years previously presented a more diff~cult 

problem which advocates were not always able to solve. Advocates 

had to know all the alternative ways a young person could complete 

his or her schooling and obtain a high school diploma. 

Advocates did not have to dominate the suspension conference 

to accomplish their objectives. Parents and students can speak for 

themselves, but the advocate provided moral support, took notes 

and interjected when appropriate. The key to an advocate's success 

was his knowledge of the Code of Student Conduct and of the student's 
r 

rights, his tack and judgment, his inability to be intimidated by 

school authorities, and his skills in maneuvering around official 

obstacles to returning suspended children to school. 

Advocates found that many of their cases were more time·-



- 41 -

consuming than had been anticipated. Preparation for the suspension 

conference, consultation with the director on how to handle problems, 

making records of what happened all took many more hours than the 

suspension conference itself. The advocates should have had more 

backup support: someone to check on after-school or counseling 

programs available: someone to research policie~ and procedures for 

testing and placement in special education classes: someone to.help 

with record keeping. The time advocates had to spend on some stu­

Q dents' problems was a reflection, at least in part,· o.f the fact 

that schools were not meeting the special and unique needs of some 

children. Indeed, advocates wonder why the professionals - princi-

pals, guidance counselors or pupil personnel workers - could not 

have done some of the tasks performed by the volunteers. 

Finally, advocates found that their most valuable contribution 

was the facilitation of better conununication between a family and 
' 

(~) the school. Parents often felt that suspensions were unnecessary 

and could have been prevented. They resented the school's failure 

to contact them sufficiently early so that the family and school 
' 

could work together to resolve classroom or behavior problems. 

Parents and principals could become so hostile toward one another 

that no productive discussions could take place. The very presence 

of an advocate diffused a potentially volatile situation and helped 

angry parents and officials maintain their composure. Advocates 

foster~d the establishment of a climate within which the issue at 



() 

(J 

·· .. ' ... 
- 42 -

hand could be addressed. We are hopeful that the tone on which 

many conferences ended and which signaled the beginning of mutual. 

understanding and respect was not temporary and will prevent future 

suspensions. 



- 43 -

VI. LEGAL BACKUP FOR JAY ADVOCATES 

As reported previously, over half of all suspensions in 

Prince George's County in the 1974-75 school year were for non-

dangerous violations of the Code of Stuqent Conduct, such as dis-

respect, insubordination, class cutting and smoking. categories 

of suspension that might involve serious charges, such as assault, 

possession of a dangerous weapon, destruction of property, use or 

possession of drugs or alcohol represented 12.5 percent. of all 

() reasons why students were suspended in that school year. As this 

figure suggests, the vast majority of suspension cases handled by 

advocates did not involve serious offenses or raise substantial 

legal issues. The issues that did surface in most suspension con-

ferences could be competently handled by lay persons and did not 

require a lawyer. 

There are two distinct advantages to have non-lawyers represent 

;·1 suspended children in conferences and hearings with school officials. 
1 •. J 

Few parents are interested in· precipitating a constitutional con-

frontation with the school system. They want their children back 
. ' 

in school receiving the instruction and services they need to learn. 

A non-lawyer is far less threatening to school personnel. The very 

presence of a lawyer at a suspension conference suggests the 

possibility of legal action and a principal might be so intimidated 

that he would refuse to admit a student until he had consulted.with 

the superintendent or notified the school board attorney. 



- 44 -· 

Secondly, community volunteers do not have the same competing 

demands on their time,· such as court apJ?earances; as lawyers do. 

Since lay advocates are more readily available, they can attend 

suspension conferences on short notice. 

A lay advocate program should plan to have legal backup avail-

able because while lay advocates can be successful in getting chil-

dren back in school, there are situations that require a lawyer. 

Part of a lay advocate's responsibility is to know the limits of 

~' his competence and to recognize when a lawyer should be consulted 

or when a student should be represented by legal coµnsel. 

Lawyers are most frequently needed in situations where sus-

pended children·have been charged with a juvenile or adult offense. 

A child who has been suspended for physical assault may have a 

juvenile petition filed against him by a teacher or the parent of 

a fellow student who alle9ed the attack, or he might have been 

(-1 arrested while on suspension. Youngsters who have legal charges 
~) 

against them stand very little chance of remaining in, or returning 
f I 

to, .school. Prompt action is therefore necessary to get the parent 

in touch with a lawyer. Where a long term suspension or expulsion 

is involved and the advocate has been unsuccessful in getting the 

student readmitted to school, a lawyer should be brought in to 

handle the appeal and represent the student in court if such action 

is necessary. 

In addition to taking .individual cases, lawyers should be 



- 45 -

involved in both the initial and on-going training of' advocates.' 

At LDF's January training program, a staff attorney discussed legal 

concepts of procedural and substantive due process as they applied 

to suspended students. A NAACP attorney from Prince George~s County 

described fact-finding techniques that advocates should use in 

interviewing students and parents and stressed. the importanc.e of 

obtaining accurate information and writing up notes about meetings 

with school officials. 

Cl Legal assistance will also be necessary if black parents want 

to challenge certain patterns and practices of excluding children 

from school as violations of their constitutional rights. As advo-

cates handle suspension cases, they will learn whether principals 

are complying with the requirements of the Goss decision or whether 

children are being suspended in violation of state law. If princi-

pals are not abiding by the district's discipline code, or if citi-

( ) zens are unsuccessful in their efforts to promote the adoption of 
~-/ 

a fair code, a law suit might be necessary. 

Litigation might be a necessary prerequisite to an advocacy 

program where principals ignore due process when suspending students 

or refuse to permit parents to bring an advocate to a suspension 

conference. LDF's suspension .suit in Prince George's County resulted 

in several amendments to the Code of Student Conduct which gave 

advocates and parents additional grounds for challenging suspensions. 

One amendment, for example, stated that suspension was a punishment 



- 46 -

of last resort and required principals to d.emc!mstrate :that they 

had tried alternatives, or lesser forms of punishment, prior to 

imposing suspensions. Advocates found that in some situations 

they could make use of that language by.demanding to know what 

alternatives had been tried and why suspension was necessary to 

correct the student's offending behavior. In turn, advocates alerted 

us to ways in which school officials we:i;e implementing those amend-

ments. We learned, for example, that wheh principals knew they had 

() to document their efforts to use suspension only as a last resort, 

some began keeping written notes of every single transgression of 

school rules and encouraged teachers to file discipline reports 

on what they had done to correct misbehavior. 

Ideally, advocates and lawyers should work as a team. Advo-

cates can resolve most suspensions without the intervention of an 

attorney. On the other hand, when a lawyer handles a case, the 
/---, 

"--) advocate can provide backup assistance by interviewing witnesses 

and assisting in the preparation of the appeal. Advocates can bring 

to a lawyer's attention legal problems common.to many suspensions 

that require a broader challenge beyond the purview of individual 

cases. And most important, advocates working with legal backup can 

insure that a lawyer is involved in the eat-ly' stages so that a 

student's rights can be better protected. 

The importance of legal backup for lay advocates must be 

recognized and planned for in advance. Without it, a student could 



..: 47 -

be kept out of school for weeks, even months, while the advocate 

tries to find an attorney. Lawyers who are willing and available 

to commit their time should be identified +n the planning stages 

·of the program, involved in· the training,. and available for con-

sultation whenever advocates or parents need them. 

0 



- 48 -

VII. CONCLUSIONS AND FINDINGS 

I ' , 
Sending lay advocates into suspension conferences to secure 

. ' ' 

the reinstatement of students is admittedly not a tptal str~tegy 

for coping with the complex problem of school discipline. Lay 

advocacy is, however, not an insignificant means of combating 

suspensions. It can demonstrate affirmative ways for students and 

parents to challenge unfair or inappropriate discipline. It can 

assist families in resolving suspension related problems. Advo-

C-_) cates can question the prevailing assumption that removing a child 

from school corrects misbehavior and can suggest constructive 

alternatives that might prevent future suspensions. 

The Lay Advocate Training Program taught us a good deal about 

what kinds of people make good advocates, the kind of tr~ining and 

support they require, the varied nature of the problems they will 

face, and the need for effective program management. We also 

(-\ learned that school discipline is not a simple issue. While we 
,,__) 

believe that excluding a child from school rarely serves as a 

deterent to misbehavior, simply getting him back in school does 

not necessarily resolve the problems which led to the .suspension 

in the first place. Any community effort to combat suspensions 

must be fully prepared to deal with the larger issues involved in 

suspension and school discipline. 

Findings 

Several important findings .emerged from LDF's experience in 



- 49 -

Prince George's County during the 1974-75 11chool year: 

1. Black cominunities have a reservoir of COl!Ullitted, able 

citizens who are ready to be trained and mobilized for serious volun-

teer service on behalf of suspended children. 

Non-traditional volunteers are often overlooked in the search 

for talent which might be mobilized: night-time or part-time workers, 

self-employed people, men as well as women who can arrange on short 

notice to be available during the day. Recruitment must go beyond 

(_) the normal circle of persons who are usually considered for volun­

teer community service. 

2. Training is essential and must be continuous throughout 

the life of the project. 

Volunteers can be trained to become effective advocates of 

the rights of suspended students and to secur~ their prompt rein­

statement, pending the resolution of the larger issues which may 

(_) be involved. Training should include an initial, intensive program 

supplemented by regular sessions throughout the project. The train­

ing program should include: relevant federal and state law as well 

as the school district's own rules and regulations: information on 

available resources within the school system and the community for 

counseling, remedial programs and alternatives to suspension: 

skills for dealing with school officials, students and parents: 

techniques for conducting community meetings to help students and 

parents to address suspension problems. The on-going training will 



50 

provide a structured context in which advQcates can cpntinually 

refine their skills and acquire new and useful information. Trained 

and knowledgeable volunteers will be better accepted by school of-

ficials with whom they must deal. 

3. The immediate return of a suspended pupil is a valid, 

though limited, objective which should be pursued even in the absence 

of a program which deals with the larger issues. 

Ideally, the lay advocacy approach should be part of a com­

Q prehensive effort to address the' larger i!!sue13 involved in school 

discipline: a more healthy climate in the classroom which is con-

ducive. to the development of mutual respe~t among all parties en-

gaged in the teaching-learning process; the availability of resources 

for teachers and students, the absence of which often contributes 

to confrontations, hostility, and an· unprodu.ctive ·learning environ-. / 

ment.; the continuous search for alternatives to suspension and 

(~ explusion; the promulgation and widespread distribution of discipline. 

codes that meet the constitutional test of due process. Even with-

out such a comprehensive program, lay advocacy in and of itself is 

a valuable strategy because each day that a.student is out of 

school increases the likelihood that he will be permanently ex-

eluded and alienated from the education process. 

4. An effective lay advocate program must have full-time 

leadership in order to realize the full potential of volunteers. 

The project director's responsibilities are demanding and 



0 

....... 

- 51 -

should include: the recruitment and training of advocates; the 

assignment and follow up of suspension cases; developing and main-

taining relations with school officials and community groups; 
' 

liaison with lawyers, community, state and, federal agencies and 

community .education. Once the project is\known, parents will turn 

to the director and advocates for information and advice that is 

not available anywhere else. Without full-time supervision and 

backup, the work of advocates will be impaired. 

5. A base of operation for the project is necessary. 

Although the project office can be very modest, there must be 
' 

a central headquarters with its own telephone, as well as a place 

where advocates can meet, and where the fi~es and a small resource 

library can be maintained. Adult or student volunteers must be 

available on a regular schedule during the day to answer the phone, 

take information, and relay messages. 

6. A lay advocate program will require a minimum budget. 

It is often possible to meet a project's requirements through 

gifts and donations. Free rental space, for example, might be pro- , 

vided by a church or community center. However, funds will be 

needed for the director's salary, telephone bills, materials and 
' 

supplies, training, and out-of-pocket expenses. 

-
7. Backup support of lay advocates must be planned for in 

advance and be readily available to meet the needs of advocates, 

as well as students and parents. 

Advocates cannot function in.a vacuum. The kind of backup 



- 52 -

support they require must be anticipated ahead of time. The pro-

ject director or an assistant must be ready to supply information 

about school district procedures, tutoring programs, coun·seling 

centers, and individuals both in the school system or in conununity 

agencies who could intervene to help resolve problems. It is 

especi~lly important to have lawyers to handle appeals, juvenile 

intake hearings, and court appearances and to be available for 

consultation as they are needed. 

0 6. A lay advocate project should be planned and operated 

on the premise that students· and parents have a right to representa-

tion and that advocates will be accepted as a legitimate third 

party in suspension conferences. 

Permission need not to be sought from school authorities in 

advance of launching the project. However, the director and advo-

cates should meet with officials to explain the program and elicit 

1'~\ their cooperation. Open conununication with and support from the 
\_~ 

school system should be encouraged, but at the same time any of-

ficial efforts to circumscribe or coopt the advocates will diminish 

their ability to function effectively. School officials will more 

readily accept and respect lay advocates if they understand who 

they are and the contribution they can make. 

" 

* * * * * * 



CJ 

(~) 

-·s3 .... ·.,·,··. 

If LDF' s ·Lay Advocate Training· Program deillOnstra·ted one 

thing, . it was that lay volunteers can get results. Commuriity groups 

and national agencies should adopt lay advocacy as one strategy 

for enabling black conununities to cope with school suspensions. 

Financial and other forms of support from foundations! churches, 

businesses, and social welfare agencies will be a sound contribu­

tion to improving the quality of education for black children. 



0 

() 

APPENDIX A 

NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND, INC. 
10 Columbus Circle, New York, N.Y. 10019 • (212) 586-8397 

1028 Connecticut Ave. N.W., Suite 510 
Washington, D.C. 20036 • (202)833-1898 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

IF YOU LIVE IN PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY AND WANT TO BE INVOLVED IN 

HELPING YOUNG PEOPLE, WHY NOT VOLUNTEER TO BECOME A LAY ADVOCATE 

FOR THE SUSPENSION ASSISTANCE PROJECT. 

A LAY ADVOCATE IS A VOLUNTEER WHO PROVIDES ASSISTANCE TO PARENTS 

WHOSE CHILDREN HAVE BEEN SUSPENDED FROM SCHOOL IN PRINCE GEORGE'S 

COUNTY. THE ONLY QUALIFICATIONS YOU NEED ARE: 

• • 

• • 

•• 

A GENUINE INTEREST IN THE RIGHTS OF STUDENTS TO 
FA;tR TREATMENT BY SCHOOL OFFICIALS • 

I 

AT LEAST 10 TO 15 HOURS OF YOUR TIME A WEEK TO 
VOLUNTEER TO THE PROJECT FROM JANU1\RY TO JUNE, 1975. 

YOUR OWN CAR • 

IF YOU WORK PART-TIME OR IF YOU WORK AT NIGHT, YOU STILL CAN 

VOLUNTEER TO BE A LAY ADVOCATE. 

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN BF;COMING A LAY ADVOCATE, CALL 833-1898 

BETWEEN 9 a.m. AND 5 p.m. 

VOLUNTEERS WILL BE PROVIDED SPECIAL TRAINING FOR THE POSITION OF 

LAY ADVOCATE. 

Contributions are deductible for U.S. income tax purpos~s 



THE SUSPENSION ASS!STANCE PROJECT IS OPERATED BY THE PRINCE . 

GEORGE'S COUNTY NAACP. THE RECRUITMENT AND TRA!NING OF THE LAY 

ADVOCATES Wn.L BE CONDUCTED BY 'I'HE NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE FUND ·.As 

ITS CONTRIBtJrION TO THE SUSPENSION ASSISTANCE PROJECT. 

I 



CJ 

APPENDIX B 

NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND, INC. 
10 Columbus Circle, New York, N.Y. 100~9 • (212) 586-8397 

TRAINING fOR LAY ADVOCACY 

A STRATEGY FOR ATTACKING THE BLACK STUDENT PUSHOUI' PROBLEM 

IN 

PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

Sponsored By 

THE DIVISION OF LEGAL INFORMATION AND COMMUNITY SERVICE 

January 9 - 12, 1975 
Donaldson Brown Center 
University of Maryland 
Port Deposit, Maryland 

Contributions are deductible for U.S. income tax,purposes 



(' ___ ) 

TRAINING OBJECTIVES 

The purpose of this program is.to develop.a knowledgeable 
and trained group of ten volunteers to function effectively 
as lay advocates on behalf of students affected by the sus­
pension/expulsion. practices of the Prince George's County 
Public Schools. While the training approach has been 
tailored primarily to the identified nee9s of black students, 
persons participating in. this program will be taught useful 
techniques and skills. which can later be utilized .in related . 
or similar administrative ·proceedings. The speci·fic train­
ing objectives are as follows: 

l. To identify suspension and expulsion policies 
and procedures which result in the exclusion 
of black students from the Prince George's 
County Public Schools. 

2. To analyze the Maryland State Statute, the 
current Prince George's County Code of Student 
Conduct and the Procedures for Student Involve­
ment, Rights and Responsibilities. 

3. To teach the techniques of lay advocacy through 
the use of role-play, role reversal, simulta­
tion, printed materials and problem-solving 
exercises. 

4. To establish a uniform method for data collec­
tion, record-keeping, client interviewing, 
fact-finding, report writing and information 
dissemination. 

5. To develop a mechanism for the ongoing monitor~ 
ing of administrative practices :for documenta­
tion in the filing of complaints, in appeals 
hearings and for potential use in legal actions. 



AGENDA 

Thursday. January 9. 1975 

5:.30 P.M. 

6:00 P.M. 

7:15 P.M. 

Friday. January 10. 1975 

8:00 A.M. 

9:00 A.M. 

Registration 

Dinner 

General Session 

1. Introd~ction to the week-end 

Shirley M. Lacy 
Legal Defense Fund 

2. Background on the suspension/expulsion 
problem in Prince George's County; 
efforts of the NAACP and other organiza­
tions to respond to the problem. 

3. The Suspension Assistance Project -
purpose, struc,ture and goals. 

Breakfast 

Elois Hamilton, Director 
Suspension Assistance Project 

Sylvester Vaughns, President 
Prince George's County NAACP 

Phylli~ Mcciure 
Legal Defense Fund 

Lenny Conway 
Robert ~. Kennedy Memorial 

Group Building 

Use of training techniques to establish 
group identity and ·norms; to sharpen per­
ceptions and to recognize and evaluate 
similarities and background experiences 
within the participan~ group. 

Shirley .M. Lacy 



~I 
\ . .I 

~riday. January 10, 1975 (Continued) 

10:00 A.M~ 

12:00 NOON 

1:00 P •. M. 

3:00 P.M. 

Student Rights - The State of the· Law; 
leading and recent cases: the meaning of 
procedural due process: who makes the rules 
and where are they found: what.are the 
differences between constitutional rights, 
law, policy and practice? 

School Desegregation and the Black Student 
Pushout: issues of discipline related to 
race: Cervantes Davis.· et al v. Board of 
Education of Prince George'·s. County, et al. 

Lunch 

Charles Williams, Esq. 
Legal Defense Fund 

Child Advocacy Children Out of School in 
America 

Who are they and how many? What are the 
barriers to school attendance; the exclu­
sionary impact of school discipline: the 
helpful tools necessary for child advocacy, 
i.e. public information, monitoring, litiga­
tion, etc. 

Cindy Brown 
Children's Defense Fund 

The Lay Advocacy Function - Part I 

1. What is a lay advocate and how does he/ 
she function with students, parents, 
school personnel? 

2. Under what circumstances, if any, would 
a lay advocate act as an observer, nego­
tiator, facilitator of communications, 
mediator, adversary, guidance counselor, 
leader, etc.? 

3. Advocacy styles: some do's and don'ts 
for lay advocates •. 

Through the use of simulation, role-play and 
problem-solving exercises, participants will 
b.e taken through a variety of experiences de­
signed to clarify diverse concepts of advocacy. 
Advocates, Marty Taylor and Leroy White, will 
assist the training staff in this session. 



(~) 

·:~.: , .. ···~ 
- ........ 

.· .... 
'• ..... 

Friday. January 10, 1975 (Continued) 

5:30 P.M. 

6:00 P.M. 

7:.15 P.M. 

Break 

Dinner 

The Advocacy Function - Part II 

1. How to interview stµdents and parents, 
collect and summarize facts, set up 
and maintain accurate records of initial 
contact, action and follow-up. 

2. Complaint procedures .and legal remedies. 
. ! 

3. Non-legal approaches for advocates, 
parents, students. 

Joseph Finlayson, Esq. 
Hillcrest Hei,ght;s, ,Maryland. 

Saturday. January 11. 1975 

8:00 A.M. 

9:00 A.M. 

Breakfast 

Dissecting Authority Sources 

1. The Maryland School Code 

2. Prince George's County Code of Student 
Conduct 

3. Procedures for Student Involvement, 
Rights and Responsibilities (Office of 
student Concerns, Prince George's county 
Public Schools). 

Participants will review, analyze and inter­
pret each of these documents to uncover 
rights and entitlements omitted, conflicts, 
flaws and loopholes, and the elements of each 
document which can be used more forcefully 
to extend and protect t:he right,s of black 
students. Participants will be assisted in 
this session by three law students from 
Catholic university. 

William Brew, 
Discussion Leader 
Catholic Universit'y Law School 



C> 

Saturday. January 11. 1975 (Continued) 

12:00 NOON 

1:15 P.M. 

2:00 P.M. 

4:00 P.M. 

5:45 P.M, 

6:00 P.M. 

8: 00 P .M. 

Lunch 

"Quiz" on the material covered in the 
morning session using group-on-group, 
alter ego and "fishbowl" techniques. 

Shirley M. Lacy 

Advocacy Models to Ensure the Rights of 
Students 

Drawing from procedures in use in the Dis­
trict of Columbia, participants will become 
familiar with approaches utilized by j:ldvo­
cates assisting students in Mills' hearings. 

Johnnie Barnes 
D.C. Community Legal Assistance 

Project 

Training-trainers Mini-Workshop 

Participants will organize a mini-workshop 
to demonstrate the following: 

l. Techniques of student representation in 
formal and informal hearings 

2. How to work with parents of suspended 
students 

3. What to do when students are faced with 
juvenile petitions 

4. Techniques of publicizing and explaining 
the Suspension Assistance Project to 
parents, community and church groups, 
civic associations, etc. 

Break 

Dinner and Free Time 

Social Evening 



.... ·-· 

Sunday, January 12. 1975 

8:00 A.M. Breakfast 

9:00 A.M. Closing Session - Where Do we Go From Here? 
j , 

l. How the Project will work 

a) Accountability 
b) Record keeping 
c) In-service training 
d) Report writing 
e) Resolution of Conflict 
f) Expense Items 

2. Training Session Evaluation 

C> 12:00 NOON Lunch 

1:00 P.M. Adjournment 

*** *** *** 

0