Reforming School Discipline Policies to Improve Children’s Success

The Atlantic Philanthropies is a limited-life foundation dedicated to bringing about lasting changes in the lives of disadvantaged and vulnerable people. In recent years, Atlantic deliberately honed its investments and focused its grantmaking on a small number of big bets with potential for significant impact. One of these priorities was the over-use of “zero tolerance” suspensions, arrests, and expulsions, and their role in pushing children of color into the justice system. In the past four years, Atlantic committed nearly $50 million to enhance public awareness of this issue, and to catalyze a national effort to rethink school discipline policy and practice.