Breaking Schools’ Rules: Abuse of Discretionary Expulsion

By Kirsten Bokenkamp Communications Coordinator We learned in the previous Breaking Schools’ Rules blog that African Americans and children with special needs are disproportionately disciplined  What’s more, school administrators over-rely on suspension and expulsion though less drastic disciplinary measure are not only available to them, but also lead to better outcomes for school children. Of course, there are some actions, such as bringing a gun to school, for which the law mandates a specific response from school authorities.  But those are very few. The researchers looked at whether youth are getting suspended and expelled for behavior for which state law mandates a particular response, or for behavior subject to school employees’ discretion.  What they found is astounding: Only 2.7percent of the violations were related to behavior for which state law mandates expulsion.  That means that 97.3percent of suspensions and expulsions result from actions where school administrators have the discretion to take less drastic measures.   The researchers found that how and when students are disciplined appears to be dependent on which school they attend. This is flat-out unfair.  And, it has dramatic consequences for those students who might not have been suspended or expelled, had they lived in a different district, gone to a different school, or had a different teacher.  For example, the study found that 31percent of students with one or more suspensions or expulsions repeated their grade level at least once. In contrast, only about 5 percent of students with no disciplinary actions were held back. The researchers also found that schools making frequent use of suspension and expulsion do not necessarily create environments that enable students at those schools to achieve better academic outcomes.  The report points out a silver lining in all this: schools do not have to wait for a change in law to improve outcomes for misbehaving students. Administrators already have the discretion to choose evidence-based approaches to discipline that get kids back on track rather than derail them. Talk to the administrators at your child’s school and tell them you are concerned about the abuse of discretionary expulsion.  Find out other ways to get involved in stopping the school-to-prison pipeline by visiting our Educate Don’t Incarcerate website.  The next blog in this series: The impact of disciplinary action on drop-out rates.