What can be done to stop the criminalization of black girls? Rebuild the system

[A]dvocates and researchers say there are ways to close that gap — and to make sure that black girls are not being pushed out of school and into confinement.

Those remedies include launching restorative justice practices, creating diversion courts, remaking the educational and juvenile justice system and — as the Office of Civil Rights recommended in closing its Fort Bend investigation last summer — revising the disciplinary codes to define infractions and procedures more clearly and developing a training program for staffers who enforce discipline.

A new study set for release this week by Georgetown Law’s Center on Poverty and Inequality, which asked black girls and women to share their experiences with adultification and the long-term impact on their lives, also calls for additional training for educators and others in authority.