Thursday, April 13, 2023 | 7:47 p.m.
Two bills to loosen Nevada’s restorative justice student discipline systems advanced out of committee today at the state legislative session.
Assembly Bill 285, a bipartisan effort, and Assembly Bill 330, which Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo backs, passed the Assembly Education Committee. Assemblywoman Claire Thomas, D-Las Vegas, was the only “no” vote to both.
Both bills make it easier to remove violent and disruptive students from classrooms and drop the age for suspension and expulsion from 11 to 6. They would reverse key provisions of discipline laws passed in 2019 that require each district have a restorative justice discipline plan. The bills also allow administrators to remove, suspend or expel students without creating an individual restorative justice plan first.
Thomas said the bills make students throwaways.
“No child in the state of Nevada should be a throwaway,” she said.
The bills change when restorative justice is required but do not entirely do away with restorative justice, which is rehabilitative in nature and seeks to repair harm rather than excluding students through suspension or expulsion. The late Assemblyman Tyrone Thompson, the existing law’s main architect, wanted to address the disproportionate effects on nonwhite students and narrow the school-to-prison pipeline.
While an amendment to AB285 requires a “plan of reinstatement” for students to reintegrate after being suspended or expelled, it lists some factors that “may” be included while leaving districts to fill in more details.
This was not enough for Thomas.
“It does not give us a direction,” she said. “With (Clark County School District) not having direction, these kids will be expelled and we know that they will be (nonwhite) children, especially in my district. We know that there are people among us that do not believe that children of color deserve to be in school.”
AB 285 absorbs the suspension and expulsion age minimums of another bill, sponsored by Assemblywoman Alexis Hansen, R-Sparks. Hansen said she and other bill authors want children to have a path back to school.
“I can assure you I would never be involved with a bill that would throw away children,” she said. “We will continue to have conversations. We are open to those if we’ve missed something, but we need to establish some equilibrium in the classroom and safety to our teachers and to our students.”
The Assembly held lengthy, emotional hearings on the discipline bills in March, drawing testimony from weary teachers telling about growing violence and poor student mental health in their post-pandemic schools and youth advocates who said troubled children need support, not removal and exclusion. Supporters of the current law have said the concept of restorative justice is misunderstood, maligned and not being implemented correctly.
Assemblywoman Selena Torres, D-Las Vegas, helped author the 2019 laws and is now one of the lawmakers suggesting revisions. She said a new version of the law requires a restorative justice plan to be created for a child once they have been suspended or expelled, and that will get kids what they need – such as determining if they need special education or social services.
The bills need to pass a vote of the full Assembly, then advance through the Senate and get Lombardo’s signature before becoming law.
Lombardo personally presented AB330 to the committee last month and has urged constituents to let lawmakers know they also support what he calls the “Safer and Supportive Schools Act.”
Amendments to Lombardo’s bill eliminate provisions that gave principals all the ability to remove disruptive students and required specific consequences for certain actions.
Assemblywoman Angie Taylor, D-Reno and AB285’s lead author, said she sees AB285 and AB300 now working well in concert.
Thomas remained an opponent.
“Bar it be the governor’s bill, I don't give a sugar,” she said. “I am upset that we will do something like this to our children in the state of Nevada.”
