School discipline issues are on display in a big way Wednesday at the White House, which is hosting a summit on the issue featuring U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, other top department officials, plus leaders from school districts that have made headway in tackling school climate issues.
The department鈥檚 civil rights data collection showed that more than 3 million students are suspended or expelled each year (including 4-year-olds). The administration called that number 鈥渟taggering.鈥� And data shows that subgroup students are particularly hard hit.
Duncan kicked off the summit by sharing a story of his time at the helm of the Chicago public schools district. He recalled speaking to the city鈥檚 police chief to find out why so many students were being arrested. And it turned out the peak time was 8 am to 4 pm, when students were in school.
鈥淚t was our schools that were calling the police to have our kids arrested and I had no idea,鈥� Duncan said. 鈥淭hat gave me huge pause. ... We found about 7 percent of our schools were producing about 50 percent of the arrests ... The school to prison pipeline is real.鈥� He also singled out one school that brought in social workers rather than school resource officers and saw a great improvement in school climate and student learning.
Duncan said he鈥檚 a big believer in transparency. He noted that one in eight students in South Carolina are suspended or expelled, while in North Dakota, it鈥檚 one in 50. He encouraged school districts to publicly and annually report data on school climate and safety as well as discipline.
At the event, department officials planned to release new maps showing the percentage of students who have received out-of-school suspensions, both for general education and special education kids. The key takeaway? Suspensions are concentrated in the Southeast. Take a look:
Here鈥檚 a map highlighting discipline actions for students in special education:
The administration also planned to highlight tools and resources to help school districts combat discipline disparities and address school climate issues, including:
- - A guide that helps educators figure out where their issues stem from by looking at school-level discipline data.
- R - A guide that outlines seven things school leaders can do to improve discipline issues, and provides links to federal guidance and other resources. It also includes a 鈥減ostcard template鈥� that districts can use to help with family engagement.
- : A new initiative coming July 27 from the Department of Justice that will provide technical assistance to juvenile courts, schools, law enforcement agencies, and others to support school discipline efforts.
School districts featured at the event that have made headway on discipline issues include: Baltimore City schools, which revamped its student behavior system to be more rehabilitative, rather than punitive, and LA Unified, which was the first district to ban suspensions for willful defiance. (More on local policies here.)
Past Efforts
This isn鈥檛 the Obama administration鈥檚 first rodeo on discipline and school climate issues.
Efforts to change school discipline policy and practices have long been a focus on the Obama administration, bringing together officials from the White House, the Department of Education, and the Justice Department.
In 2011, the Justice and Education departments launched the Supportive School Discipline Initiative to address what鈥檚 known as the 鈥渟chool-to-prison pipeline,鈥� the term critics use for policies that they say result in overly harsh discipline and inappropriate referrals from schools to the criminal justice system. Advocates for school discipline reform have argued that such policies disproportionately impact minority racial and ethnic groups.
That initiative fueled support for first-of-its-kind federal civil rights guidance that the two agencies released in January 2014. That guidance urged schools to cut back on exclusionary discipline, such as suspensions and expulsions. It also put districts on notice that they can violate federal civil rights laws through policies that have a 鈥渄isparate impact,鈥� leading to higher rates of discipline among students of certain racial or ethnic groups, whether or not those policies were written in an intentionally discriminatory manner. That warning drew criticism from some conservative lawmakers and critics, who said it may inspire schools to set 鈥渜uotas鈥� for school discipline.
Alongside that guidance, the agencies released resources for promoting supportive school climates through efforts like restorative practices and improved relationships between adults and students.
Discipline has also been a focus of Obama鈥檚 My Brother鈥檚 Keeper initiative, which addresses equity for boys and young men of color. That initiative has encouraged both a re-thinking of existing policies and efforts like mentoring and public-private partnerships to improve the lives of at-risk students.
Schools around the country have responded to the efforts by adopting alternatives to suspensions, rewriting school discipline codes to weed out vague and subjectively applied terms like 鈥渄efiance,鈥� and improved training for teachers and staff members.
