About Our Research: Using Quantitative Data Requests from State Agencies as a Data Collection Method

Given our community-based research approach at MA Appleseed, we collect data in several ways. Whether qualitative or quantitative, we center racial equity in our process to ensure that those impacted by the issues we study have their voices heard. 

We explained focus groups, qualitative surveys, and semi-structured interviews in past blog posts. This post will dig into quantitative data requests from state agencies, the remaining data collection method we employ in our research. 

In some cases, having access to large datasets from state agencies is helpful to our research. Analyzing this type of data allows us to uncover patterns of inequity, for example in school discipline statistics as seen on our School Discipline Data Dashboard.  

We can take a few paths to gain access to data from state agencies. We prioritize building relationships with people in state agencies so they can understand how we will use the data, opening a line of communication that is collaborative rather than adversarial. For example, our ongoing relationship with the data team at the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education fostered our creation and updating of the School Discipline Data Dashboard. 

In other cases, we opt to file a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, which consists of asking for specific information from a state agency that they can either comply with, deny, or ask for more time to address. Under the Massachusetts Public Records Act, along with the federal Freedom of Information Act, most records from state agencies are available to the public upon request. 

A salient example of public records requests stems from our work with the Mass Speaks Coalition, which works to eliminate language barriers at state agencies, so that Limited English Proficient (LEP) and Deaf and Hard of Hearing (D/HH) residents have equal access to the services and information they need. To better understand state agencies’ current spending on language access services and gauge how much the Language Access and Inclusion bill would cost when implemented, we submitted requests to state agencies. We asked for information about the amount of money the agencies spent on various services, such as in-person interpretation, telephone interpretation, and translation services. The information we received, which we compiled into a cost analysis fact sheet, informed our work on this legislation. 

In certain cases, quantitative data from large state institutions can provide the information we need to better understand social problems and find appropriate solutions. 

This post concludes the About Our Research blog series! We hope the information we shared gave you some insights into the “why” and “how” of our work at MA Appleseed. 

Invisible and Underserved: How Massachusetts Fails Pregnant and Parenting Youth Experiencing Homelessness

Falling Through the Cracks 

In Massachusetts, pregnant and parenting teens experiencing homelessness continue to fall through the cracks of a system designed without their needs in mind. Despite some legal protections, individuals at the intersection of youth homelessness and pregnancy remain dangerously underserved. Shelters routinely turn away pregnant youth, services often require parental consent, and vital resources like prenatal care and Women, Infant, Children nutrition assistance (WIC) remain inaccessible due to bureaucratic and legal hurdles.  

According to the 2024 Massachusetts Youth Count, 9% of unaccompanied youth experiencing homelessness reported being pregnant or parenting at the time of the survey. Many of these young people are navigating pregnancy without consistent shelter, transportation, or access to healthcare. Policy blind spots exacerbate these challenges by overlooking the complex realities of young parents.  

One of the most urgent issues is housing. Youth-specific shelters in Massachusetts often exclude pregnant teens, either due to their policies or lack of infrastructure. Others require parental consent to admit minors—an impossible requirement for unaccompanied youth who have left unsafe or unsupportive home environments. The pending Act Allowing Certain Minors to Consent to Supportive Services (H.290/S.132) would address this gap by allowing unaccompanied minors ages 15-18 to consent to supportive services on their own. Pregnant teens sometimes hide their pregnancies to stay in a shelter or choose between disclosing and getting turned away. 

Barriers to Care 

MA Appleseed’s research shows that even shelters accepting young parents often fail to provide trauma-informed, youth-centered support to meet their needs. Youth experiencing homelessness usually lack access to prenatal care, facing major barriers that keep them from getting essential services. Transportation poses a significant obstacle, especially in rural or transit-inaccessible areas. Many teens do not know where to go or how to find help, while others fear judgment or institutional involvement because of past negative experiences with these systems. When providers lack training in trauma-informed or adolescent-centered care, they further alienate young people and discourage them from seeking the support they need. 

Under Massachusetts law and Department of Public Health guidelines, minors may consent to their prenatal care without a parent’s permission. Although Massachusetts law allows minors to consent to their own prenatal care, legal access does not equal real-world accessibility. In practice, many pregnant and parenting teens continue to face overwhelming barriers — including lack of transportation, personal identification, financial stability, or the support of a trusted adult. These gaps between policy and lived experience leave at-risk youth navigating critical healthcare needs alone, often delaying or forgoing care entirely. 

For pregnant and parenting youth experiencing homelessness, survival often depends on accessing benefits like WIC, SNAP, or MassHealth. But obtaining those benefits usually requires a government-issued ID—a document that many youth experiencing homelessness cannot access due to cost, lack of documentation, or the need for parental involvement. The pending Everyone Needs ID bill—An Act to Provide Identification to Youth and Adults Experiencing Homelessness (H.3750/S.2399)—would help by removing cost barriers and allowing service providers to verify residency. According to the 2024 Youth Count, 24% of young people said not having an ID prevented them from receiving nutrition or cash assistance. Another 19% said it blocked access to health services. 

Without this support, young people face increased instability. Hunger, unmanaged health conditions, and lack of prenatal care can escalate the risk of poor birth outcomes and continue the cycles of homelessness.  

Legislative Solutions on the Table 

MA Appleseed supports several legislative initiatives that would significantly improve conditions for pregnant and parenting youth experiencing homelessness:  

  • Act Allowing Certain Minors to Consent to Supportive Services (H.290/S.132): This bill would allow mature minors ages 15–18 experiencing homelessness to consent to services such as shelter, case management, and counseling, without requiring parental consent.  
  • An Act to Provide Identification to Youth and Adults Experiencing Homelessness (H.3750/S.2399) This bill would waive the $25 fee and other documentation requirements for unaccompanied homeless youth to obtain a Massachusetts ID.  

A Call to Action 

Pregnant and parenting youth navigate some of the most vulnerable stages of life with the fewest protections. Massachusetts has an opportunity—and an obligation—to build systems that do not punish young people for surviving. That starts with housing access, transportation, trauma-informed care, and removing bureaucratic barriers that treat young parents as invisible.  

Until we center the needs of young parents in our policy and practice, we will continue to see the same cycle of homelessness, poverty, and poor health outcomes play out. At MA Appleseed, we believe that every young person deserves safety, dignity, and the opportunity to provide support, not shame. 

About Our Research: Using Semi-Structured Interviews as a Data Collection Method 

Given our community-based research approach at MA Appleseed, we collect data in several ways. Whether qualitative or quantitative, we center racial equity in our process to ensure that those impacted by the issues we study have their voices heard. 

We explained focus groups and qualitative surveys in past blog posts. In the next blog post, we outline our use of quantitative data requests from state agencies. This post will dig into semi-structured interviews. 

Interviews allow us to dive deeper into a particular topic with various individuals who are experts, whether from their lived experience or work in and around the issue. This data collection method can stand alone, or follow another kind, such as a survey.  

Via interviews, we can gather more detailed information and stories from those experiencing a specific social issue or inequity. This research method gives space for a more relational and personal approach with each participant, placing the sole focus on one person and their stories. 

Our project investigating language access for Limited English Proficient (LEP) clients of the MA Department of Children and Families (DCF) exemplifies how we utilize semi-structured interviews. A few years after we released our Families Torn Apart report, we sent a survey to lawyers who work with DCF-involved families that are LEP to gauge any potential improvements. Following the survey, we held short interviews with respondents who agreed to be contacted further. We were able to ask tailored questions based on their survey responses to get more detailed information and narratives. These interviews proved critical to the memo we drafted given that they greatly bolstered our qualitative findings. 

How do we prepare for interviews? We create an interview guide ahead of time, which is a list of questions ordered in a certain way. Interview guides are important for several reasons: 

  • They provide the researcher with a list of questions to ask at each interview to standardize the data collected 
  • The questions are in an order that help to “warm up” the interviewee and allow for relationship building between the interviewer and interviewee 
  • There are “probes,” or follow-up questions that delve deeper into specific topics, that can be used depending on participants’ responses in the moment 

Interview guides are crucial to a successful semi-structured interview and the interviews are semi-structured for a reason. The idea behind a guide, rather than a script, is that interviews should ultimately feel like conversations where the interviewee is as comfortable as possible. Having the structured interview guide along with the flexibility to veer away from it to ask different questions makes for the ideal situation. Essentially, this is the definition of a semi-structured interview.  

This data collection method mainly centers on qualitative data. When we do interviews, we look for personal accounts, emotions, and outcomes. The stories and quotes that arise from interviews are incredibly valuable data that uplifts the people behind the social issue, rather than solely thinking about the problem from a numerical (quantitative) point of view. 

The next blog post in this series will explain our use of quantitative data requests from state agencies. Stay tuned! 

Breaking the Cycle: The Connection Between Youth Experiencing Homelessness and Sexual Exploitation

This year, concerning findings emerged from the 2024 Massachusetts Youth Count, which surveyed 661 young people across the state. These 661 individuals met the definition of an “unaccompanied young person currently experiencing homelessness” (UHY), as defined by the Massachusetts Unaccompanied Homeless Youth Commission. This definition includes young people aged 24 or younger who are not in the physical custody of a parent or legal guardian and who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence. 

The 2024 Youth Count demonstrated how the absence of a stable, safe home or support system leaves youth experiencing homelessness vulnerable to harm. Specifically, the survey showed the connection between homelessness and exchanging sex for basic needs. In 2024, 19.8% of youth experiencing homelessness reported exchanging sex or sexual content to meet needs like food, shelter, or money, an increase from 17% in 2021. Of this group, 26.7% said someone else controlled the profits from those exchanges, meeting the definition of commercial sexual exploitation. 

These statistics point to a dangerous reality for many youth experiencing homelessness. Accessing essential services such as housing, healthcare, and financial resources is so challenging that the risk of exploitation increases significantly. 

While there are resources available for youth experiencing homelessness in Massachusetts, existing legal and systemic barriers often inhibit access to them. Current Massachusetts law does not allow youth under the age of 18 to receive many services without the consent of a parent or guardian. While minors in Massachusetts can consent to some services, such as family planning and emergency medical treatment, without the consent of their parent/guardian they cannot consent to other basic services like lockers, showers, or case management. As a result, youth are turned away when trying to access these essential services because they do not have a parent or guardian to sign off. 

Another major barrier is the requirement for state-issued identification (ID). Youth experiencing homelessness are often unable to obtain an ID due to the cost and need for parental consent in many cases. Without an ID, young people are unable to access essential services like healthcare, nutrition assistance, cash assistance, and employment opportunities. According to the 2022 Massachusetts Youth Count, the lack of ID was identified as one of the most significant obstacles to accessing these services. Specifically, 22% of homeless young people reported being unable to receive nutrition or cash assistance due to not having an ID. In addition, a lack of ID prevented 19% of young people experiencing homelessness from accessing essential health services, and 17% from accessing employment services. 

These barriers to accessing basic services make youth experiencing homelessness more vulnerable to exchanging sex for needs. To end the cycle of commercial sexual exploitation, the barriers preventing youth from accessing the services they need must be addressed. Without action, the cycle of exploitation and harm will continue. 

At MA Appleseed, we support An Act Allowing Certain Minors to Consent to Supportive Services (H.290/S.132). This bill would allow a mature minor between the ages of 15 and 18 who is experiencing or at risk of experiencing homelessness to consent to supportive services without needing a parent or guardian. We also support An Act to Provide Identification to Youth and Young Adults Experiencing Homelessness (H.3750/S.2399). This bill would create an exception process to waive the $25 fee and allow unaccompanied youth experiencing homelessness to obtain a Massachusetts ID card without parental consent. 

Both of these bills are crucial to ensuring youth experiencing homelessness can access the services they need and break the cycle of sexual exploitation. 

To support these bills or join us in coalition, contact Nadia Romanazzi at nadia@massappleseed.org. 

About Our Research: Using Qualitative Surveys as a Data Collection Method 

Given our community-based research approach at MA Appleseed, we collect data in several ways. Whether qualitative or quantitative, we center racial equity in our process to ensure that those impacted by the issues we study have their voices heard.  

We explained focus groups in our last blog post. In the next few blog posts, we outline the data collection methods we employ, including semi-structured interviews and quantitative data requests from state agencies. This post will dig into qualitative surveys. 

Surveys are a helpful tool in our research repertoire. This method can be especially useful when we want to: 

  • Hear from lawyers, advocates, service providers, and other people working on the social issues we are studying 
  • Get information from a large and diverse set of respondents 
  • Gather data in a more convenient manner for participants 
  • Collect quantitative data to support our qualitative findings 
  • Compile a considerable amount of data 

Putting together a survey takes thought and intentionality. We try to focus on ordering the questions in an intuitive way for respondents and only ask questions that we need answers for.  

We prioritize including several types of questions in our surveys to create a dynamic experience for participants. This variation is also important in terms of the data we collect. For example, we can extrapolate percentages, majorities, and the number of respondents providing a specific answer from the different types of questions we ask. This quantitative information helps back up our largely qualitative research findings.  

Surveys take a good deal of time to compile, and we test them before dissemination to work out any kinks and make sure the questions provide the information we are seeking. Although we spend a lot of time on the front end with survey creation, participants only need to take a set amount of time to complete a survey, making this data collection method more passive and less time-consuming for them.  

An example of these strategies in practice is a follow-up survey to our Families Torn Apart report and subsequent civil rights complaint against the MA Department of Children and Families (DCF). We disseminated this survey to lawyers who represent families with Limited English Proficiency (LEP) that are involved with DCF and gathered updated information on language access services provided to their clients. By including a variety of question types and spaces for respondents to expand on their answers, we were able to analyze the data and compile findings that confirmed a lack of improvement in outcomes for families that are LEP and involved with DCF. 

Another positive aspect of survey dissemination is that surveys can be sent to a large group of people easily, for example via listservs. Reaching a wide audience is typically important when collecting data in this way.  

Overall, surveys are useful when we are looking to reach a diverse set of respondents, put less onus on participants, and compile findings that are both qualitative and quantitative in nature.  

The next blog post in this series will explain our use of semi-structured interviews. Stay tuned! 

About Our Research: Using Focus Groups as a Data Collection Method

Given our community-based research approach at MA Appleseed, we collect data in several ways. Whether qualitative or quantitative, we center racial equity and lived experience in our process to ensure that those impacted by the issues we study have their voices heard. 

In the next several blog posts, we outline the data collection methods we employ, including qualitative surveys, semi-structured interviews, and quantitative data requests from state agencies. This post will dig into focus groups. 

One way we uplift the voices of impacted individuals on a particular topic is hosting small focus groups with community members. These structured sessions allow us to hold and create space for impacted individuals to share their experiences in a supportive and validating setting, bring community together, and gain a deeper understanding of the issue at hand from those directly facing it.  

We prioritize intentional community outreach to recruit participants, oftentimes partnering with direct service providers who already serve the populations we are focusing on. Our existing relationships with partner organizations help to facilitate this outreach. For example, we got feedback on an ad campaign for the Homeless Youth Handbook from The Home for Little Wanderers, where we have previously given Know-Your-Rights presentations. Additionally, we hold focus groups in locations that are convenient for participants and provide a meal and financial compensation for their time and expertise.  

One of our current projects is investigating the state of language access in the MA Trial Courts for litigants who are Limited English Proficient or Deaf and Hard of Hearing. As part of this research effort, we held focus groups with impacted community members who speak different languages. To make these sessions feel more genuine, familiar, and comfortable for participants, we found facilitators who spoke the relevant language to eliminate the need for an interpreter. 

In all, focus groups are a great resource in our toolkit when we want to understand the everyday experiences of marginalized and minoritized individuals interacting with institutions such as the criminal legal, education, and public benefits systems. That said, they require deep relationship building and must not be transactional in a way that only benefits the researcher.  

The next blog post in this series will explain our use of qualitative surveys. Stay tuned! 

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About Our Research: Qualitative vs. Quantitative Data

Here at MA Appleseed, we use research to investigate and understand the pressing issues facing families and young people across Massachusetts. From that research, we develop solutions that are effective, practical, and informed by impacted community members.

But what type of data do we collect? Why? How? In this blog series, About Our Research, we will elaborate on our research ethos, data collection and analysis, and how we present our findings to advance real change.

This first blog post will address the age-old question: What is the difference between qualitative and quantitative data?

Qualitative data is focused on the subjective experiences, attitudes, and feelings of community members who are impacted by systemic injustices or who work on these issues. This kind of data is often collected via observation, interviews, focus groups, and other community-centered methods. Qualitative data tells the story behind social justice issues and trends. This kind of information helps us hear the experiences of those directly impacted by a problem, answering the “why” and “how” questions that arise regarding social inequities – why is this happening, how is this problem unfolding in people’s lives?

We analyze qualitative data by categorizing information into themes and highlighting narratives that tell the story of the issue. An example of qualitative data in action at MA Appleseed is our research on the accessibility barriers unrepresented litigants struggling with debt faced in virtual court hearings during COVID-19. For this project, we collected qualitative data through court watching (having volunteers observe and report on court proceedings) and interviews with key stakeholders.

Quantitative data is centered on objective numbers and often collected via surveys and the use of datasets, which are large collections of numerical information about a particular group or issue. This kind of data provides the hard and fast figures behind a social problem, explaining the extent of an issue using numbers. Quantitative data answers the “how much” and “how often” questions that arise when trying to address injustices.

We analyze this type of data by identifying patterns in the numbers to yield findings in ratios or percentages. For example, our School Discipline Data Dashboard presents an enormous amount of numerical data from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) in an accessible way, breaking it down by district and allowing users to see how the complexity of students’ identities correspond to instances of school discipline. Meanwhile, our report on language discrimination at the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families (DCF) uses publicly available documents to highlight important data points, like the number of language access complaints received by DCF within a 10-year period.

We primarily collect and utilize qualitative data for our research projects and when appropriate, apply a mixed methods approach that combines qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis. This kind of project design allows for more well-rounded research and findings. For example, our research on girls of color and the school-to-prison pipeline uses quantitative data and analysis to understand the statistical disparities that girls of color face at school. Working with a Community Advisory Board, we also interviewed current students to hear directly from impacted girls of color who could speak about their lived experiences in Massachusetts schools. Considering that numbers and statistics only tell part of the story, we need qualitative data to fill in the gaps of the narrative and understand the context of the problem. Case in point, our first joint report on this topic found that Black girls in Massachusetts are four times more likely to be disciplined at school, but this statistic can easily be misconstrued by individuals arguing in bad faith. The qualitative stories and experiences shared by the girls we interviewed added necessary context and made it clear: Girls of color are punished more often and more harshly for the same behaviors as their white female peers. The combination of numerical data and detailed stories allowed us to compile a more comprehensive report.

The next several blog posts in this series will focus on how we go about collecting different types of data, offering a window into how we engage research participants in qualitative data collection and access quantitative data from state agencies. Stay tuned!

 

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2023-24 Formal Legislative Session Wrap-Up

The formal legislative session ended in the early morning hours of August 1st and while few bills ultimately made it across the finish line, we saw progress on a number of vital policies.

First, Access to Counsel was included in the FY25 state budget, with $2.5 million included to establish a statewide pilot program! Supported by a broad coalition of 240 organizations, of which Appleseed is a proud member, this marks the first big step to starting a program that can provide full representation to tenants and low-income owner occupants.

Thanks to continued leadership from Project Bread and the Feed Kids Coalition, $170 million in funding for universal school meals also made it into the budget! This will help ensure hundreds of thousands of students can continue to focus on learning instead of worrying where their next meal will come from.

The Young Student Exclusion Ban and Language Access and Inclusion Act were once again reported favorably out of committee after hearings packed with compelling testimony, but did not make it to the Governor’s desk. Similarly, two of our first-time bills focused on supporting youth and young adults also received favorable reports but did not advance further. These bills aimed to 1) ban the suspension or expulsion of students for dress and grooming violations, thereby preventing the over-policing of girls, students of color, and LGBTQ+ students, and 2) allow unaccompanied minors experiencing homelessness to consent to supportive services so they can meet their immediate survival needs.

We’re disappointed that more policy changes that would make a meaningful difference in the lives of Bay Staters did not come to fruition, but it’s important to celebrate the steps forward we did see. Of the 14 bills we supported and helped fight for this session, 11 saw positive movement through the State House and none received a negative vote. This is indispensable groundwork for the coming months and whether you shared your personal experience with state leaders, wrote to your legislators urging action, or helped us spread the word about these campaigns – thank you for helping us come this far.
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Throughout the fall, we’ll be meeting with our legislative champions and coalition partners to strategize for next session. Some of the prep work we’ll be doing includes redrafting bills, conducting deeper policy research, mobilizing in more communities, and building on all the momentum we’ve developed so far.

 

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Celebrating Women’s History Month: Spotlight on Carolin Hetzner

From members of the staff to dozens of volunteers, MA Appleseed is proud to be led by so many remarkable women. This Women’s History Month, we’re thrilled to shine the spotlight on one of our exemplary board members, Carolin Hetzner, Senior Manager of the Court Service Centers, Massachusetts Trial Court!

Sharing her insights, advice, and invaluable perspective, Carolin’s dedication to justice and community empowerment inspires us each and every day.  

What does justice mean to you?

Justice can mean so many things, but for me it is equal access to the courts and resources. Ensuring that no one is excluded because of barriers such as lack of language access, immigration status, race or gender bias, literacy, or disability. Access to this justice looks different for everyone. While it does often involve accessing the courts, access to justice can also take the form of advocacy for legislation or providing an individual guidance on processes that eliminate the need for court involvement.  

Why is Board service meaningful to you?

Board service allows me an inside look at the important work that Appleseed staff does daily. It provides me with a different perspective on how communities can be better served through legislation, and allows me to learn from other board members’ experiences and perspectives. 

If you had to give one piece of advice to young women just starting out in the workforce, what would you say?

I would have two pieces of advice. First, having a boss who sees your value, listens to your voice, and leads by example is invaluable and can inspire you to bring your best self to work every day.  Second, no one knows everything even after years of practice. Give yourself grace when you don’t know something and ask lots of questions.  

Are there any female barrier breakers or role models, either from history or your personal life, that you look up to?

There are so many women, both professionally and from my personal life, that inspire and encourage me to be the best version of myself. I find tremendous inspiration from my coworkers, colleagues, and closest friends. Women who not only juggle demanding work, personal, and family schedules, but often make time for community service as well. My first role model, like many people, is my mother. As a single mother, she overcame obstacles such as limited English proficiency and financial insecurity, to provide me and my siblings a better life. She has always led by example, teaching us the value of kindness, respect, and giving back to the community. Values that I now try to pass on to my own child. 

 

This Women’s History Month, let’s celebrate leaders like Carolin Hetzner, whose tireless efforts enrich our communities and pave the way for a more equitable future. Carolin, we extend our deepest gratitude for your unwavering commitment to justice and your vital contributions to MA Appleseed!

 

 

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Missing the Mark on School Safety: How City Officials’ Call for Law Enforcement in BPS Actually Harms Students

By Asia Foland

Contaminated rooms, unbearable class temperatures, and… metal detectors? Boston Public Schools are still working to meet students’ needs. Police are not going to help.

In June of 2022, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, former BPS superintendent Brenda Cassellius, chair of the Boston School Committee Jeri Robinson, and Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) Commissioner Jeff Riley signed the “Systemic Improvement Plan” (SIP) targeting the district’s most urgent problems: among them late buses, failures to equitably serve students with disabilities, and deteriorating facilities.

Last month during a state education board meeting, DESE commissioner Riley called Boston’s progress on implementing this plan “incomplete” (2). He noted empty staff positions across the district, including leaders for the multilingual education office, a “coordinator of problem resolution” to address school safety and parent concerns, and senior staffers for special education (2,3).

More than half of Boston’s schools were built before World War II and since 2007, only four projects for new renovations and schools – out of three dozen – have been approved (1). And BPS has not yet renovated school bathroom facilities throughout the city, despite pledging to do so under the SIP (2). The consequences of this disrepair are well-known: oppressively hot classroom temperatures, crumbling walls and ceilings, and exposure to environmental contaminants.

And yet, amid BPS’s mounting public and legal obligations, how have certain Boston leaders responded?

With calls for police.

Though BPS removed police from schools in 2021, four Boston city councilors published a public letter this past January urging Mayor Wu to reinstate police and metal detectors in schools (4). In their letter, the city counselors — Erin Murphy, Michael Flaherty, Ed Flynn, and Frank Baker — declared the need for these security measures despite acknowledging the public’s “differing opinions” surrounding their use.

But this isn’t a matter of “differing opinions.” 

Visible and physical security measures in schools have been overwhelmingly discredited. According to a report by Citizens for Juvenile Justice, an analysis of 15 years of metal detectors in schools came up with “insufficient evidence that their use decreased crime or violence in schools,” instead finding “their presence made students feel less safe” (5).  

Yet in their letter, Boston City Councilors labeled metal detectors “non-invasive.” This is far from reality: for those forced to walk through them every morning before they can learn, metal detectors are invasive – physically and psychologically. And when we make our schools feel like prisons, our children feel less secure. 

Police presence also has no positive impact on school safety outcomes, according to a meta-analysis of 12 studies done by the WestEd Justice & Prevention Research Center (6). Instead, Black and brown students are disproportionately targeted within their schools, specifically for low-level offenses that in no way require law enforcement (7). In a district where students of color make up 85% of student enrollment, placing police in schools would detrimentally diminish an encouraging learning environment.  

But there is another path Boston can take. Evidence-based approaches, centered around restorative justice and preventive measures, have been proven to reduce student arrests and foster a safe learning space. These include conflict resolution, personal reflection, community reconciliation, and more. And they’re not a new phenomenon: when Denver Public Schools implemented restorative practices in 2011, suspension rates decreased by 44% (8). 

These strategies would relieve our city councilors’ safety concerns by identifying the underlying causes of conflict instead of their visible outcomes. As Leon Smith, Executive Director of Citizens for Juvenile Justice, remarked, “It would be unfortunate to see Boston move in a regressive way, doubling down on approaches that research shows are not effective rather than shifting resources to approaches shown to both address student need and improve school safety and climate” (9).  

Fundamentally, not only does law enforcement ineffectively ensure school safety compared to restorative action, but it also fails to address the urgent dangers posed by Boston’s declining facilities. Police officers cannot protect students from exposure to asbestos or lead in the neglected buildings they patrol. Police officers cannot ventilate classrooms or keep them within tolerable temperatures. Students deserve real safety at school – not just the illusion of it. And with such blatant neglect on display, it would be outrageous to funnel crucial funding and resources toward failed law enforcement measures. 

To their credit, Boston has made recent progress in meeting their students’ needs. But that does not mean we cannot hold them accountable. This moment is crucial for Boston Public Schools, and we must be diligent. Using reactionary force does not ensure student safety in schools. And when the district is still struggling to serve all students, allocating time and resources toward ineffective discipline would only set them back. It’s time for Boston leaders to expand their definition of school safety and support investments that genuinely address our students’ needs.

 

Sources:

  1. Massachusetts spends thousands more on school construction aid for white students than for students of color, https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/05/27/metro/massachusetts-school-construction-aid/
  2. One year into school improvement plan, state official grades Boston’s progress ‘incomplete’: https://www.wbur.org/news/2023/06/27/boston-school-improvement-plan-one-year-later-progress-update
  3. Another year, another incomplete grade for Boston Public Schools: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/07/06/opinion/boston-public-schools-jeff-riley-blistering-criticism/
  4. https://twitter.com/ErinforBoston/status/1611476972076507136
  5. Mowen, Thomas and Freng, Adrienne. “Is More Necessarily Better? School Security and Perceptions of Safety among Students and Parents in the United States”. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7205221/
  6. Stern, A., & Petrosino, A. (2018). What do we know about the effects of school-based law enforcement on school safety? San Francisco, CA: WestEd. https://www.wested.org/ resources/effects-of-school-based-law-enforcement-on-school-safety
  7. Thurau, L. and Wald, J. Controlling Partners: When Law Enforcement Meets Discipline in Public Schools, 54 N.Y.L. Sch. L. Rev. 977 (2009-2010). https://digitalcommons.nyls.edu/ nyls_law_review/vol54/iss4/5/ 
  8. Cregor, Matt and Damon T. Hewitt. “Dismantling the School-to-Prison Pipeline: A Survey from the Field.” (2011).
  9. Boston Public Schools quietly negotiating with city police to formalize relationship: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/02/16/metro/boston-public-schools-quietly-negotiating-with-city-police-formalize-relationship/

 

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