A youth rights group is pushing Denver Public Schools to automatically purge high school discipline records that may hurt a student’s chances of getting into college.
As part of the college admissions process, high school guidance counselors must check a box as to whether a student has had disciplinary problems. Daniel Kim of the group Padres & Jóvenes Unidos says parents and students can petition to have the records expunged. But he said that's not an easy thing to do.
"What if the principal changed at that school?" he said. "How easy is it to go back and reconstruct something two years ago?
The group is asking the district to adopt a policy to automatically purge those records on an annual basis. DPS school leaders say they’ve engaged in initial discussions with Padres.
A recent national study found that three out of four colleges collect disciplinary information and 89 percent of those schools use it to make admission decisions.
