Alyssah Hall
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!The USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism held a “Health Matters” webinar titled “Suspended: Student Mental Health and Unequal Discipline,” on Wednesday, Jan. 22.
The session was moderated by Michelle Levander, Director, USC Health Journalism. Guest speakers included Cheyanne Mumphrey, a national education reporter atThe Associated Press; Jessica Seaman, K-12 education reporter at The Denver Post; and Rachel M. Perera, governance studies fellow at the Brown Center on Education Policy at Brookings.
The panelists provided insights regarding how to take alternative approaches to reporting on student suspensions and how to identify the inequities in suspension rates that are having a disproportionate impact on students of color.
USC reports there has been a rise in school suspensions since the pandemic in certain areas of the country. It is believed this is partly due to many schools being short of staff and unable to support young students with mental health challenges. More often than not, suspensions are an “easy way out” for overworked administrators and instructors. These forms of school discipline aren’t effective and can have negative long term effects on the academic future and health of students, especially when these suspensions aren’t given out equally.
For example, disciplinary practices of the Victor Valley Union High School District, located in San Bernardino County, even before the pandemic during the 2018-19 school year, showed disparities in the percentages of total student enrollment by race, in proportion to their percentages of discipline referrals.
African American students, who made up 20.8% of the total student population, accounted for 37.1% of discipline referrals, nearly twice their percent of the student population. This represented the greatest discipline disparity among all racial groups in the district. According to OCR’s 2022 report, the practice of regularly removing students from class through out-of-school, in-school and class suspensions “ disproportionately and adversely impacted African American students.”
“Latino students at 54.3 percent (9,774) of discipline referrals, represented 65.2 percent (8,975) of total student enrollment. The Office of Civil Rights (OCR) concluded that discrimination directed at Latinos was not significant.
African American students at 37.1 percent (6,678) of discipline referrals represent almost twice their 20.8 percent (2,870) of student enrollment.
White students at 5.9 percent (1,062) of discipline referrals, represented eight percent (1,097) of student enrollment.
Asian, Native Islander and American Indian students at 2.7 percent (486) discipline referrals, represented 5.1 percent (698) of student enrollment,” according to the OCR report investigation.
Since 1973, the earliest data collected about out of school suspensions at a national level by the U.S.Department of Education, suspension rates have increased steadily for decades, according to Perera.
Perera noted marked increases in suspensions between 1973 and 2010, saying that racial disparities in suspensions, specifically for Black students, have always existed, and that as suspension rates increased, racial disparities expanded. Suspension rates have tapered off over the last decade or so, he acknowledged.
“We know that there are also very stark inequalities based on gender and disability status. When we consider these aspects of student identity together, we know, for example, that Black boys with disabilities have some of the highest suspension rates on record. When we’re talking about suspensions and discipline it’s really important to take that intersectional lens,” Perera shared.
Perera discussed ideas she had on the reason for the increase in the disproportionate suspension rates listing among the reasons that students with disabilities did not have access to public schools before the early 1970s; the use of second-generation segregation in schools; the decimation of the Black educator workforce—Black kids are far less likely to be suspended when they are taught by Black teachers;and even more in depth disadvantages faced by Black students across the past decades to present day.
Progress has been made but massive disparities remain
Mumphrey stated that some of the reporting she has done on the issue of school suspensions show “progress has been made, and it exists, but there are really massive disparities for Black students.”
“So [in] California, you saw suspension rates for Black students fall, but it’s still three times higher than their white counterparts. In Minnesota, again, suspension rates have fallen for Black students, they fell, but it’s again, still three times their Black student share of the population. So, you’re still seeing these disparities in numerical sense…This is something to pay attention to,” Mumphrey stressed.
Murphey shared her belief that minor incidents are escalating because the policies are vague and “subjective,” which allows administrators to make decisions based on their own biases.
“Once you are kicked out or drop out of school,” Murphey continued, “it increases your chances of criminalization. In adulthood you are more likely to be arrested or face criminal prosecution for just having gone through some sort of punitive process prior to that.”
With other options for youth in these situations, such as alternative school, Mumphrey found that the experience of being in an alternative school doesn’t match the intent of why alternative schools were created.
“A lot of students are going through these programs and realizing that it’s making the matter worse. The behavior is not actually being addressed in any way, and it’s causing issues related to lower grades, lower graduation rates, [and] issues with mental health,” Mumphrey shared.
What teachers need
Seaman began covering K through 12 education in 2021, as kids returned to in-person school in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Suspensions naturally dipped during remote learning. However, once kids returned to schools, Seaman said she saw a dramatic increase in out-of-school suspensions in Colorado, as opposed to in-school or classroom removals. These suspensions were said to surpass pre-pandemic levels.
“This [is] a more severe form of punishment that takes kids out of the building and not just the classroom. I found that most of the suspensions were also for nonviolent behaviors, things like substance use, disobedience — which is a very vague term — and property destruction, are among reasons why kids were getting suspended,” Seaman said.
“Districts with a shortage of special-ed providers or paraprofessionals had a 40% higher suspension rate than those that were fully staffed in those positions. I also found that districts with a shortage of school psychologists and social workers had a 24% higher suspension rate…We know that during the pandemic, kids were struggling more with trauma, they had grief. They missed out on a lot of socialization that they were used to as well,” Seaman continued.
Perera said she doesn’t have any “cheap solutions” to this issue and felt that allowing schools to suspend kids is free and convenient for the burdened teacher. But, for schools to invest in proper training and staffing issues, it would cost more money.
“I think we need to acknowledge that teachers are being put in a tough position, and they do need more tools, but I think we really need to continue to emphasize that these tools, suspension and negative forms of punishment, are harmful to those students. They don’t work. They’re not going to have any positive impact on those students. And we need to empower teachers with effective tools, with constructive tools,” Perera said.