Georgia Appleseed urges funding for school‑climate improvements, flags exclusionary discipline and enrollment denials

Georgia Appleseed told the committee its statewide legal‑assistance practice sees many students excluded from school for extended periods for conduct often characterized as minor infraction, and described enrollment denials and ambiguity in HB 268 as contributing to lost instruction time.

Darlene Lynch, legal and policy director at Georgia Appleseed, said the nonprofit handles roughly 200–250 cases a year involving suspensions, expulsions and enrollment denials, and that last year its interventions prevented 17,000 missed school days through case work. Lynch said out‑of‑school suspension (OSS) has fallen statewide to about 6.9% but that there are local pockets with substantially higher rates.

Lynch said she is seeing an increase in enrollment denials and disputes, where schools request broad records or evaluations (for example psychological evaluations or other records) before admitting a child, creating weeks of lost instruction. She also described frequent long‑term suspensions for vaping or minor infractions and noted many such suspensions — in her caseload analysis about 60% — are for lower‑severity infractions. Lynch observed that discipline often disproportionately affects students with disabilities and that transportation barriers and alternative‑school assignments can leave students unable to attend.

Georgia Appleseed’s recommendations included dedicated funding and technical assistance to establish and sustain student attendance and school‑climate committees (for example via the Council of Juvenile Court Judges), investment in interventions for schools rated one‑ or two‑star on climate, incentives for evidence‑based positive behavioral interventions (rather than exclusionary discipline), clarification of HB 268’s record‑sharing and remote‑learning provisions, and study of alternative‑school operations.