As the Assembly considers best practices to meet student’s health and mental health needs, it is vital that you ensure there is continued funding to help school districts improve school climate and safety. This week marks the 9th annual week of action against school pushout, a national effort carried out by the Dignity in Schools Campaign, a coalition of organizations dedicated to ending the school-to-prison pipeline. As an active member of the New York chapter of the Dignity in Schools Campaign, a coalition in large part organized by youth, CDF-NY understands that harsh and exclusionary responses to student behaviors in school do not address the underlying conditions that lead to the unwelcome behaviors, and those measures cannot be relied on to support student wellbeing or long-term solutions to conflict.1 CDF-NY seeks to foster safe and supportive schools through measures that provide professional development to school staff, get to the source of student disengagement from school, and prevent and address conflict in ways that preserve the dignity and well-being of all students, school staff, and their communities.