Bullying and harassment are some of the more direct forms of discrimination that students can experience. Title VI also covers less overt forms of discrimination that are reflected in disparate treatment of students by race. One of the most harmful forms of discrimination a school can engage in is in unnecessarily harsh, unequal applications of school discipline.

Schools have to maintain a safe and orderly environment to educate students. However, in order to uphold students’ civil rights, they also have to evaluate the effects of the disciplinary measures that they use. The Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), which surveys all public schools in the country, has found that students of certain racial racial or ethnic backgrounds tend to be more disciplined than their peers.¹

(This is why data collection is a vital bulwark against the erosion of civil rights. We can speak definitively on educational outcomes by race based because the Department of Education has studied trends in data among a huge number of students. Your school should be monitoring disciplinary outcomes by race.)

The CRDC has found racial disparities in school discipline in America, particularly in reference to^2,3,4:

• Suspension and expulsion
• Seclusion and restraint
• References to law enforcement
• Unequal disciplinary actions for similar infractions

Some of those findings include things like^5,6:

• Black preschool children are 3.6 times as likely to receive one or more out-of-school suspensions as white preschool children.
• Black K-12 students are 3.8 times as likely to receive one or more out-of-school suspensions as white students.
• Black girls are suspended at higher rates (12%) than girls of any other race or ethnicity.
• American Indian or Alaska Native, Latino, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, and multiracial boys are also disproportionately suspended from school, representing 15% of K-12 students but 19% of K-12 students receiving one or more out-of-school suspensions.
• Black students are 1.9 times as likely to be expelled from school without educational services as white students.
• Black students are 2.2 times as likely to receive a referral to law enforcement or be subject to a school-related arrest as white students.
• American Indian or Alaska Native and multiracial boys represent 2% of all students, but 5% of students subject to restraint or seclusion. Black boys represent 8% of all students, respectively, but 18% of students subject to restraint or seclusion
• More than one out of four boys of color with disabilities, and nearly one in five girls of color with disabilities, receives an out-of-school suspension.
• Black students represent 19% of students with disabilities, but 36% of these students who are restrained at school through the use of a mechanical device or equipment designed to restrict their freedom of movement.

Additionally, the Office for Civil Rights, which investigates civil rights complaints, have found in their investigations that schools frequently punish students of color more harshly than they do white students who commit similar behavioral infractions.⁷ Research suggests that the substantial disparities in school discipline found by the CRDC are not explained by more frequent or more serious misbehaviors by students of color. Additionally, those students are losing a significant amount of instructional time due to exclusionary discipline, a result of which is the “school-to-prison pipeline.”

“Studies have suggested a correlation between exclusionary discipline policies and practices and an array of serious educational, economic, and social problems, including school avoidance and diminished educational engagement; decreased academic achievement; increased behavior problems; increased likelihood of dropping out; substance abuse; and involvement with juvenile justice systems.”⁸

The costs of exclusionary discipline are high for everyone, not only the affected students. In fact, high suspension rates are associated with lower academic achievement and standardized test scores in schools, and exclusionary discipline erodes trust between students and school staff. Taxpayers and schools even wind up bearing elevated direct and indirect costs from elevated grade retention and dropout rates.⁹

The data is clear: the discriminatory and unequal application of exclusionary discipline harms students, schools, and communities. It is up to us, then – members of these schools and communities – to hold each other accountable.

Resources

1. Dear Colleague Letter on the Nondiscriminatory Application of School Discipline – Office for Civil Rights, Department of Justice
2. 2013-2014 Civil Rights Data Collection: A First Look – Office for Civil Rights
3. Civil Rights Data Collection Snapshot: School Discipline – Office for Civil Rights
4. Guiding Principles: A Resource for Improving School Climate and Discipline – Department of Education
5. 2013-2014 Civil Rights Data Collection: A First Look – Office for Civil Rights
6. Civil Rights Data Collection Snapshot: School Discipline – Office for Civil Rights
7. Securing Equal Educational Opportunity – Office for Civil Rights
8. Dear Colleague Letter on the Nondiscriminatory Application of School Discipline – Office for Civil Rights, Department of Justice
9. Guiding Principles: A Resource for Improving School Climate and Discipline – Department of Education

Additional resources

• Policy Statement on Expulsion and Suspension Policies in Early Childhood Settings – Office for Civil Rights, Department of Health and Human Services