Student discipline continues to have an outsize impact on certain students, particularly Black boys and girls and students with disabilities. These groups, along with white and multi-racial boys, are suspended and expelled at rates that remain higher than their shares of total K12 enrollment, the latest data shows.
At the same time, solutions are emerging and evolving as K12 leaders work to reverse the trend and eliminate the school-to-prison pipeline.
“We cannot be complacent when the data repeatedly tells us that the race, sex, or disability of students continue to dramatically impact everything from access to advanced placement courses to the availability of school counselors to the use of exclusionary and traumatic disciplinary practices,” U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a recent statement.
Disciplinary disparities
Black boys are more than twice as likely to be suspended than their white male classmates, according to a November report from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.
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Overall, about 638,700 students were suspended (out-of-school) at least once and about 28,300 were expelled in the most recent year for which national data was available, 2020-21. Black students, among other groups, are also overrepresented when it comes to arrests and law enforcement referrals:
- Black students represented 15% of K12 enrollment, but 18% of students referred to law enforcement and 22% of students subjected to a school-related arrest.
- White students represented 46% of enrollment, but 55% of students referred to law enforcement and 47% of students subjected to a school-related arrest.
- Students with disabilities represented 17% of enrollment, but 27% of students referred to law enforcement and 28% of students subjected to a school-related arrest. They also accounted for 29% of students who were suspended at least once of 21% of those who were expelled.
- Boys, Black students, students of two or more races, and students with disabilities were subjected to restraints and seclusion at disproportionate rates.
Districts reported approximately 274,700 school offenses in 2020-21, the large majority of which were “threats of physical attack without a weapon.” About 180 schools (less than 1%) reported at least one school shooting and about 100 schools reported a homicide of a student or staff member, the Department of Education reported.
‘Peace-Building Circles’
New solutions are emerging and other practices are being refined right alongside the troubling numbers. In November, a leading civil rights group took aim at dismantling the school-to-prison pipeline. Learning for Justice, an initiative of the Southern Poverty Law Center, released several resources for school leaders who want to reform disciplinary practices in their districts.
“Educators and families can advocate for and implement practices that prioritize mental health and well-being and do not push children out of the classroom,” says the nonprofit, which shared the following ideas and articles:
- A community “Freedom School” model embraces transformative practices to strengthen relationships.
- A tool kit for using peace-building circles.
- “Decarceration” gives educators a key role in ending discipline that criminalizes youth with trauma-informed practices and other reforms.
- “It Was Always About Control“: Why class management that’s based on compliance is at the root of discipline that harms young people.
- School safety without police is an effort to advocate for students’ dignity.
- How leaders can work with parent-led grassroots organizations that want to end punitive school discipline policies.
- From slavery to school discipline: Examining the connection between school discipline and the history of slavery can help schools affirm and protect Black students.
- A webinar on trauma-responsive education.
