Heinz College Students Partner with ACLU of Pennsylvania to Explore School Safety, Discipline, and Resource Equity

As school shootings continue to upend communities across the country, many school districts have increased their investments in campus police. But many of these districts lack school counselors, social workers or other support staff –– roles that advocates say better serve and protect students. 

This fall, a team of graduate students from Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College worked with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Pennsylvania to explore how varied investments in school safety and student support affect disciplinary outcomes, such as out-of-school suspensions. 

The project aimed to provide clear, evidence-based insights for school districts, as many have limited resources to allocate and little guidance on the strategies that best support students’ academic, emotional and behavioral success. The team’s work highlights the value of using data to inform policy decisions, especially when inequities in outcomes are at stake. 

The capstone project is an essential part of the Heinz College curriculum, allowing students to take on real policy and research roles and work with an external partner. Monet Blakey (MSPPM ‘26), Kennedy Botts (MSPPM ‘26), Ziang Chen (MSPPM ‘26), Jordan Gutterman (MSPPM-DA ‘26), and Katie Vossler (MSPPM ‘26) made up the team for the ACLU of PA project. 

Erin Kucic, academic program manager at Heinz College, said the MSPPM curriculum embeds experiential learning to equip students for real-world policymaking in the public sector.

“Through capstone and applied projects, students work with real partners and real data to develop rigorous policy recommendations with practical relevance,” Kucic said. “The project with the ACLU of Pennsylvania highlights how students transform analysis into evidence that can guide decisions with direct community impact.”

Real-World Policy Work Through the Capstone Experience

For this project, the ACLU of Pennsylvania sought to build upon existing research about school discipline and explore whether different investments in school counselors, psychologists and security personnel influence disciplinary patterns in Pennsylvania school districts.

Using data from the Pennsylvania Department of Education, the team compared school districts’ funding for security personnel with their investment in student support roles such as counselors, social workers, and psychologists. Chen and Gutterman primarily worked with Python and R when analyzing the data.

“The analysis included regression models to better understand the relationships between different security and support allocations and key outcomes, helping provide context for how these factors interact across districts,” Chen said.

The team’s analysis suggests that districts that spend more on security personnel tend to have higher suspension rates than those that invest more in support services. Districts with more counselors, social workers or psychologists tend to see different, and often more positive, disciplinary outcomes.

Blakey worked alongside other students to coordinate research tasks and ensure the team maintained momentum throughout the semester. She applied lessons from a previous class on management science, particularly how to allocate resources effectively and act strategically. 

“I really wanted to make sure the project wasn't in a position to fall behind, that we had actual time to do things and to produce a high-quality end product,” Blakey said.

Recommendations

While the project revealed trends rather than definitive causal relationships, the students provided actionable insights for education leaders and advocates. With their findings, the students developed a set of recommendations aimed at helping districts create more supportive and equitable school environments. 

Some of their recommendations include reducing reliance on out-of-school suspensions, using tiered systems to evaluate and respond to student infractions, prioritizing investment in mental health professionals and providing support for students returning from suspension.

For Blakey and her teammates, the capstone was a springboard for future impact. The project was built on previous ACLU reports showing counselor shortages and disciplinary disparities, providing a clearer picture of how funding choices may influence student experiences.

“I think this will serve as a foundation for future research,” Blakey said, emphasizing that the effort helped clarify where resources are going and how those decisions relate to student success. 

Beyond advancing understanding of school policy, the project offered students an opportunity to apply classroom learning in an authentic context, working with a policy advocacy partner. The experience has helped them to navigate data challenges, interpret complex findings and communicate results in ways that support constructive policy conversations.

“This capstone was a really valuable experience for us.” Chen said. “It gave us the opportunity to apply the data analysis skills we’ve learned in class to a real client setting, and to see how those methods translate into practical impact.”

The capstone’s emphasis on analytical rigor and applied policy work illustrates the core of the Heinz College mission: To train future leaders to tackle complex social challenges with evidence, empathy and impact.

“My biggest takeaway was that we were able to look at real numbers, real facts and real figures and identify what worked and what did not,” Blakey said.