Targeted and Ticketed: Student Ticketing and the Perpetuation of the School-to- Prison Pipeline

The National Center for Youth Law (NCYL) is a non-profit organization working to end the harms of the juvenile, municipal and criminal legal systems, including by decriminalizing normal adolescent behavior, ending financial consequences, and improving children’s access to adequate developmentally appropriate treatment. Our work prioritizes eradicating the school-to-prison pipeline, and abolishing harmful fines, fees and economic sanctions through the Debt Free Justice Campaign (DFJ). In school districts across the nation, students receive fees and fines as consequences for school-based behavior. Students are policed and ticketed for age-appropriate behaviors and disciplinary matters such as littering, truancy, and underage drinking and smoking. While reforms in the juvenile legal system have been supported by emerging research on adolescent brain development and evidence-based interventions, there is a rapidly growing phenomenon of fining youth through what may be viewed as a less-punitive system for municipal ordinance violations. The youth being channeled into this municipal legal system are disproportionately Black, Brown, and Indigenous youth and youth with disabilities. They are not provided the same legal protections as those youth in juvenile court, and they and their families are driven deeper into debt. This article looks into an intersection within our work by examining municipal ticketing: when an economic sanction becomes not only a barrier to education, but a funnel into the court system. Through case studies of this phenomenon in specific states (Texas, Illinois and Colorado), we will explore various dimensions of these racially discriminatory practices, including the harmful results of giving Student Resource Officers (SROs) discretion to ticket students, the various drivers of increased municipal court usage, and the impact of overall reform happening in a particular state. We will conclude by suggesting possible advocacy strategies, and restorative justice alternatives to continue the work to keep students in school and out of court.