A new set of reports shows that school discipline disproportionately affects students with disabilities and students of color. The findings, issued last spring by the Discipline Disparities Research-to-Practice Collaborative, found that students with disabilities are suspended twice as frequently as their non-disabled peers and for longer durations. They also found evidence of police involvement in matters that might be considered “adolescent misbehavior.”
Researchers found that black students were 1.78 times as likely to be suspended from school as white students; Latino students were 2.23 times more likely to be suspended than white students. Students with disabilities were suspended at twice the rate of their non-disabled peers and for longer durations. 25% of black students with disabilities received at least one out-of-school suspension in the 2009-2010 school year. Out-of-school suspensions are linked to academic disengagement, lower achievement, greater risk of dropout, and increased contact with the justice system.
Suspension rates for black students have nearly tripled since 1972.
Earlier this year, the Obama administration released legal guidance on student discipline, warning schools that they are accountable for the disparate impact of their actions on protected groups, including those with disabilities and students of color.
For more information: The Discipline Disparities Research-to-Practice Collaborative, http://www.indiana.edu/~atlantic/
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