The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas said it's fighting zero tolerance policies that funnel kids out of school and into the prison system.

The Texas-branch of the civil rights organization convened in Austin for an annual conference.

"We filed a lawsuit this week in Hidalgo County, Texas and the issue is that kids over the age 17 and older are being jailed there for truancy violations going back to before they were of age to go to jail," Dotty Griffith said. "A policy that keeps a kid from graduating from high school because they're in jail for failure to pay truancy fines is a misguided policy."

Griffith said the ACLU of Texas is recruiting members for its student legislative team. The team will lobby on students' rights issues during the upcoming session.

Interested youth between the ages of 15 and 18 are encouraged to contact the ACLU of Texas office. Learn more by visiting ACLUTX.org.