For the past two years, Virginia Organizing Chapters from Fredericksburg to Lynchburg and Christiansburg to Portsmouth have been working locally to stop the school-to-prison pipeline. In Fredericksburg, this meant reworking the memorandum of understanding between the Spotsylvania superintendent of schools and the county sheriff’s office to stop referrals to law enforcement for non-criminal behavior issues. In Portsmouth, this means fighting to end the high number of suspensions that disproportionately affect students of color and students with disabilities.

Today, we have an opportunity to take action at the state level and we need your help!

Will you take just a couple of minutes to call your Virginia delegate and senator and ask them to support SB 995 and SB 997 on the Senate side and HB 1534 and 1536 on the House of Delegates side? You can find out who represents you here.

SB 995 and HB 1534 reduce the maximum long-term suspension from 364 days to 45 days. SB 997 and HB 1536 will prevent students in Pre-Kindergarten through third grade from being suspended for longer than five days or expelled. These bills keep kids in classrooms learning instead of out of school falling behind.

It is especially important to call before Wednesday if your delegate is one of the following: Landes (Chairman), Pogge (Vice Chair), Lingamfelter, Cole, Massie, Greason, D. Bell, LeMunyon, Robinson, Yost, Yancey, Dudenhefer, Davis, Leftwich, LaRock, Tyler, Bulova, Keam, Hester, Lindsey, Bagby

Please call before Thursday if your senator is one of the following: Newman (Chairman), Saslaw, Lucas, Howell, Locke, Barker, Black, Carrico, Petersen, Cosgrove, Lewis, Dunnavant, Chase, Suetterlein, Peake

Even if your legislator is not on this list, please call! The more our legislators hear from us, the more they will know we care about these issues.

Virginia Organizing is committed to providing you with information on how to take action on issues that are important to all of us. If you want more information on how to take action, please visit our “Act Now” site on our website at www.virginia-organizing.org/act-now.

Thank you for taking action!