A poorly defined and overused zero-tolerance policy, meant to deter violent crime in Florida public schools, has resulted in thousands of students being funneled into the juvenile detention system for minor offenses, according to a study being released today.

The report, issued by the Advancement Project, an NAACP-affiliated group based in Washington, D.C., says teachers are often turning over the task of disciplining students to school police, and ``setting students on a schoolhouse-to-jailhouse track.''

The study concludes that ``in the final analysis . . . school districts have spent millions of dollars for school police officers who spend most of their time disciplining students for conduct that should be addressed by school programs, counseling and parental involvement.''

According to the findings, there were 26,990 schoolrelated ''referrals'' to the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice during the 2004-05 school year. About half of those arrests were for charges such as disorderly conduct, trespassing and assault. In all, misdemeanor offenses accounted for 76 percent of the charges.

The report, ''Arrested Development: Addressing the School Discipline Crisis in Florida,'' spotlighted disciplinary actions in the Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Pinellas, Hillsborough and Duval districts.

The results mirror a front-page Miami Herald story last month that showed a disproportionate number of students were being booked at the Miami-Dade Juvenile Detention Center on minor charges.

JUMP IN SUSPENSIONS

The study found that under the zero-tolerance policy, school administrators statewide also relied heavily on out-of-school suspensions, which rose from 385,365 in 2000 to 441,694 in 2005, a 14 percent increase -- although the student population increased by 8 percent.

Black students accounted for half of those suspensions and juvenile-justice referrals, although they account for 23 percent of student enrollment statewide.

The report says Florida schools increasingly ``utilize internal discipline methods that focus on isolation and removal instead of addressing the underlying behavioral problem.''

CLAIMS OF BIAS

After receiving complaints of questionable disciplinary actions from parents, Florida NAACP officials called on the Advancement Project and NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund to hold public hearings last October throughout the state.

Parents, students and school officials gathered at civic centers to share testimony about punishments they called biased and racially motivated.

''It was clear from the hearings that the educational system in Florida is starting to look more like the criminal justice system,'' said Monique Dixon, senior attorney with the Advancement Project.

Particularly disturbing, she said, was the large number of incidents in which disabled kids seemed to be wrongfully disciplined.

In Miami-Dade County, where district records showed that schools police arrested about 2,500 students in 2005, officials said they are aggressively pursuing measures to curb the high number of student arrests.

''We are instituting a number of new practices to curb any form of abuses of the zero-tolerance policy,'' said district spokesman Joseph Garcia. ``This is an issue that's being looked at in unprecedented ways.''

CURBING ARRESTS

The district is the first in the state to implement a civil citation program, which officials say will cut down on most of the arrests. Under the program, first- and second-time offenders will get citations for minor offenses such as disorderly conduct and trespassing.

According to Garcia, school arrests for trespassing and disorderly conduct decreased by 16 percent and 5 percent, respectively, as of March 15. However, arrests for simple assault and miscellaneous charges increased by 21 percent and 1 percent, respectively.

''These four categories accounted for 30 percent of our serious incidents [that led to arrests],'' Garcia said. Overall, he added, serious incidents are down about 10 percent. ''When compared to our student enrollment of roughly 357,000, schools police action in serious action touched less than one-half of 1 percent,'' he said.

VAGUE PARAMETERS?

Advancement Project officials say the guidelines defining what infractions classify as zero-tolerance violations are outlined in vague and broad parameters. For example, in Broward County, 'a student reportedly was charged with disruption of a school function for shouting `WHOO-WHOO' as he watched a fight between two other students.''

The group is calling for school districts to limit using the zero-tolerance policy to serious conduct that is a major threat to school safety.

''If it means they have to rewrite the state law, we feel they should be clear on what zero tolerance applies to,'' said Dixon. ``Hopefully the report will be a road map for participants to discuss initiatives that will reverse the tide of students being funneled into the system.''

Said Olga Akselrod, assistant counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund: ``Arrested Development is intended to be a starting point to bring about viable solutions in Florida to address the negative side effects of the use of law enforcement approaches to typical student misbehavior, and to encourage efforts toward reform.''

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