Richmond, Va. — Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe wants changes in policies in the state after it was found that Virginia has the most number of students being referred to police and courts than all other states in the U.S.
Gov. McAuliffe has ordered his cabinet members to identify the root cause of the problem, and asked them to recommend changes in the state’s policies to address the problem.
Speaking to the Center for Public Integrity, Gov. McAuliffe’s spokesman, Brian Coy, told:
“They’re going to look into it, and make recommendations and he will act on it. Virginia parents send their children to school to learn, not to end up in the juvenile-justice system.”
According to Coy, the officials tasked by the governor to get down to the bottom of this particular problem in the state are members of what Gov. McAuliffe calls a “children’s cabinet”, which the governor himself formed himself last year.
Members of the “children’s cabinet” include Secretary of Health and Human Resources Bill Hazel, Secretary of Education Anne Holton, and Secretary of Public Safety Brian Moran. Mr. Coy says the officials were asked by the governor to “take a 360-degree look at how to make Virginia the best place to raise children.”
Gov. McAuliffe did not set any deadline for the officials’ recommendations, but any that require legislation must be submitted by January of next year for it to be included in the state’s 2016 legislative session.
Source: Susan Ferriss on the Center for Public Integrity website: Virginia governor asks how to reverse schools’ staggering rate of referrals to cops and courts