User:RAlexis13/School discipline

Background
Much of the state and federal laws surrounding school discipline originate from zero-tolerance policies for student misconduct practiced by policy-makers from the 1980s and 1990s. With the increasing use of zero-tolerance policies in schools, by 1997 the federal government was funding the use of police officers in schools, resulting in an increased use of discipline in schools across the country and an influx of students entering the juvenile justice system. By 2000, 41 states had laws set in place requiring cases involving students who committed criminal violations in school, like drug possession, to be handled by law enforcement and juvenile courts, instead of the schools themselves. During this time, Black students accounted for over one-third of all corporal punishment and in-school and out-of-school suspensions, nearly one-third of all expulsions and school-related arrests, and over one-quarter of all referrals to law enforcement; rates around three times higher than that of white students.

Public schools are prohibited from using disciplinary practices as a form of discrimination. The Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights is tasked with deciding whether or not to investigate students’ reports of disciplinary racial discrimination. Former United States Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos enacted delays and eliminations of student discipline guidance under the United States Education Department. In 2016, the Obama administration required states to address racial disparities in special education under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, but DeVos delayed the implementation of these requirements. In 2014, the United States Department of Justice and the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights issued guidance to reduce racial disparities in suspension and expulsion. In 2019, DeVos defended the Education Department’s choice to repeal this guidance.

Student Protections
Today, schools across the U.S. suspend, expel, and punish Black students at a higher rate than white students. Despite these rates, there are multiple federal laws against racial discrimination in schools. There are two groups for these laws: disparate treatment and disparate impact.

Disparate treatment laws allow students the right to testify against schools and school districts for intentional racial discrimination. Under the equal protection and due process clauses of the 14th Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, students who feel they have been intentionally racially discriminated against can testify against their schools or school districts.

Disparate impact laws, including the federal regulations of Title VI and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, allow federal agencies to testify against schools and school districts for policies they have put in place that ultimately result in racial discrimination, regardless of the intent behind the people practicing those policies. Violations of these regulations can cause schools and school districts to lose federal funding.

Mitigation and Reform
Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports (PBIS) programs examine disciplinary issues, attempt to reduce the severity of punishment for students, and provide increased support for students who have emotional and behavioral disorders. PBIS programs are supported by the United States Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs Technical Assistance Center and have been used by schools across the United States.

General Trends
Racial disparities in suspension and expulsion vary across states. Atlanta, Georgia, Chicago, Illinois, Houston, Texas, and St. Paul, Minnesota possess schools and school districts that, on average, suspend Black students at least six times more than white students. A study done by the University of Pennsylvania concluded that Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia schools contribute over half of all suspensions and expulsions of Black students in America. In these thirteen states, Black students only make up about 24% of the students in public schools, but 48% of suspension cases and 49% of expulsion cases. Today, 19 states allow the use of corporal punishment in schools, including Arkansas, a state that ranks 13th in the country for highest disciplinary disparity between Black and white students.

In New York State, Black students are suspended at a rate over four times higher than white students; in New York City, this figure increases, with Black students being suspended at a rate over five times higher than white students. Schools in New York suspend nearly one in five Black male high schoolers. In California, Black males are suspended more frequently than any other racial or gender group, and Black females are the third most often suspended group. Black students with disabilities in California lose about 44 more days of school instruction due to disciplinary consequences than their white peers with disabilities.

Mitigation and Reform
Schools across the country are making efforts to reform their disciplinary systems and practices to reduce racial disparities. A study done in North Carolina produced findings that having Black teachers is associated with lowered amounts of exclusionary discipline for Black students, across all age, gender, and income ranges. To reduce its racial disciplinary disparity, Arkansas’ state regulations are beginning to request that school districts make an effort to racially diversify their staff. School disciplinary policies in Arkansas are technically decided by state laws and the Arkansas Department of Education, but schools within Arkansas have some decision-making authority, which allowed them the power to suggest the diversification of their staff, as well as other policies that are being put into place to reduce racialized disciplinary disparities, including but not limited to:


 * Disciplinary punishments permitted for students are required to be written into a school district’s policy.
 * In school districts where corporal punishment is used, the district must establish specific policies for when and how to employ it.
 * School districts are required to inform students’ parents of disciplinary policies and provide written proof of the existence of said policies . These policies are required to be filed with the Arkansas Department of Education and include due process.
 * All school personnel, including teachers, administrators, volunteers, and all employees are required to undergo student discipline training.

Similarly to Arkansas, schools in Virginia are attempting to improve training for teachers and administrators. In California, multiple school districts have completely eliminated suspensions for Kindergarten through twelfth grade in public schools. The New York State Education Department and the Board of Regents has included out-of-school suspensions in the Every Student Succeeds Act, attempting to hold schools accountable for the suspension rates of different groups of students, including Black students’ higher suspension rates compared to that of other racial and ethnic groups.

Demographics
Within the United States of America, urban educational institutions service the largest portion of Black students in primary and secondary education. On a larger scale, urban educational institutions with a predominantly Black student body yield higher rates of punitive disciplinary actions in comparison to institutions with a predominantly white student body. Black students attending urban educational institutions are more likely to receive suspension and to be arrested than white students. On a smaller scale, rural school districts with a larger portion of Black students also yield higher rates punitive disciplinary actions than predominantly white school districts.

County-Level
Individual schools districts within a state have jurisdiction to implement and enforce education-related policies within their educational institutions. Dependent on a school districts approach to resolving behavioral conflicts, the disparities between rates and intensity of discipline between white and Black students can intensify or lessen. The subjectivity of approached to behavioral policies allows for external factors such as socioeconomic and racial demographic to factor into an institution's utilization of disciplinary actions.

Truancy
An example of the varying racial disparities in discipline across counties and school districts is the different disciplinary approaches to solving truancy, "any intentional, unjustified, unauthorized, or illegal absence from compulsory education". The Los Angeles County District enacted punitive to decrease the rate of absenteeism occurring within the district's educational institutions. It piloted the Abolish Chronic Truancy (ACT) program that would discipline absenteeism through penal punishments for both students and their parental guardians. Punishments for parental guardians include legal prosecution with maximum penalty of a fine up to $2,500 per child and up to a year sentencing. For students, punishments may be prosecution in juvenile court with potential penalties including fines, probation, community service, and mandated attendance of a truancy education program. Socioeconomic factors--lack of transportation, acting as a caregiver for siblings, etc.-- that affect a student's attendance and likelihood of penal punishments disproportionately affects low-income black students.

Another approach that school districts have utilized to commit truancy is rehabilitating students and accounting for external factors. For example, the office of Alameda County Assistant District Attorney Teresa Drenick within the Alameda County School District has piloted a diversion program to increase attendance. The program addresses students with high absenteeism rates with consistently absent students by providing access to therapy, health services, and resources such as bus passes. The county reports that the program has been "more than 90% successful at getting students back in class", decreasing absenteeism rates.

Students with Disabilities
The disparity in punitive disciplinary actions between Black and white students is further widened for Black students with disabilities. National surveys on disparities in school discipline have found higher rates of suspension among Black students with disabilities. From 2014-2015, the national average of days lost per 100 enrolled for students with disabilities are 119.0 days for Black students and 43.0 days for white students.

An existent effort to decrease rates of disciplinary actions for Black students with disabilities have examined the effects of same-race teachers within the classroom. For example, from 2014-2015, North Carolina had a wider gap in disparities than the national average in which Black students lost 158.3 days per 100 enrolled and white students lost 64.1 days. North Carolina, like many states, has local school districts with a higher percentage of Black staff and teachers than other districts. A study by researchers Constance A. Lindsey and Cassandra M. D. Hart demonstrates that Black females reduced disciplinary rates for Black male students with disabilities by a "2 percentage points to approximately 14 percent" decrease. Additionally, students with Black male teachers within the study had a reduced disciplinary rate by "15 to 13 percent". The study suggests that school districts with an increased percentage of Black students may exhibit lower rates of punitive disciplinary actions for Black students with disabilities and have a lessened gap between Black and white students.

Within the Classroom
When disparities occur within the classroom they are often covert and passive meaning that instead of outwardly discriminating against a student because of their color teachers discreetly give fewer advantages to students of color. Examples of this could include counselors or teachers influencing students of color to take easier classes or to not attend four-year universities, and teachers not learning the correct way to pronounce student names. This can also include white students being given more chances before serious discipline, such as suspension or expulsion, is enacted. According to a study published by the Association for Psychological Science teachers often recognize second offenses in the classroom as the result of a pattern of wrongdoing when it comes to Black students while white student offenses’ are often labeled as isolated incidents.

Black Girls
While it has been proven black boys tend to be disciplined more often and more severely, evidence also suggests that black girls experience more racial bias in their education. A research study conducted by the National Women’s Law Center and the Education Trust observed that “Black girls are five times more likely than white girls to be suspended at least once and four times as likely as white girls to be arrested at school.” The racial bias is compounded upon as girls also experience gender bias within the classroom, a phenomenon coined as educational inequality. Based on data published by The National Bureau of Economic Research, on the short-term and long-term consequences of teachers’ stereotypical biases, it was found that teacher biases have a positive effect on boys achievements in class but have a negative effect on girl's achievements. This can have long term consequences on the futures of Black girls as it can prevent them from enrolling in the advanced level classes that are commonly required for STEM majors in college.

Implications
Due to increased suspension and expulsion rates, Black students are losing instructional time by spending more time away from the classroom. Lost instructional time can result in lower retainment levels of educational material, lower graduation rates, and higher drop-out rates. Higher rates of punishment in schools can increase interactions between Black students and law enforcement when Black students are punished with referrals to law enforcement for disciplinary infractions. Referrals to law enforcement following the report of a student to a law enforcement agency or officer by a school employee can include citations, tickets, court referrals, and in some cases arrests, though not all referrals lead to arrests. These interactions with the law are a precursor for the school-to-prison pipeline, which disproportionately affects black students.