Suspension, race, and disability: analysis of statewide practices and reporting.(psychological research)(includes statistical table)

This analysis of statewide suspension data from 1995 to 2003 in Maryland investigated disproportionate suspensions of minority students and students with disabilities. We found substantial increases in overall rates of suspensions from 1995 to 2003, as well as disproportionate rates of suspensions for African American students, American Indian students, and students with disabilities. The odds ratios for suspension increased for African American students and American Indian students from 1995 to 2003. The odds ratios for students with disabilities varied by disability category and by race. For most disability categories, students with disabilities had higher odds ratios than students without disabilities. Students with emotional and behavioral disorders had the highest odds ratios for suspensions, especially for African American students. Findings from this investigation are discussed and recommendations are provided for practice and future research.

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School discipline has consistently been a concern of parents and the general public for the last 35 years (Rose & Gallup, 2004). Recently, high-profile school shootings and media coverage of those incidents have created the perception that many schools are unsafe (Brooks, Schiraldi, & Zeidenberg, 2001). The passage of the Gun-Free Schools Act of 1994 and provision of discretionary federal grants to schools to improve safety have led to implementation of zero-tolerance policies in response to serious student misbehavior (Brady, 2002). Although the impact of changes in school disciplinary policy continues to be debated, evidence suggests that policies have had a disproportionate impact on minority youth and students with disabilities (Cooley, 1995; Leone, Mayer, Malmgren, & Meisel, 2000; Skiba, Michael, Nardo, & Peterson, 2002; Townsend, 2000).

Nationwide implementation of zero-tolerance policies and current disciplinary practices of public schools appear to have increased the vulnerability for students who have received historically unequal treatment in school. Disciplinary practices exclude students across racial and ethnic groups, but they are of particular concern for African American students, who continue to be disproportionately suspended, expelled, detained, and incarcerated (Leone et al., 2003; Skiba & Peterson, 2000: Townsend, 2000). In addition, students with disabilities appear to be at greater risk for disciplinary procedures than their peers without disabilities (Cooley, 1995; Leone et al., 2000; Zhang, Katsiyannis, & Herbst, 2004).

WHO IS SUSPENDED?

A number of student factors are associated with disciplinary practices (Nelson, Gonzalez, Epstein, & Benner, 2003). Disproportionate minority representation in school discipline data has been documented consistently for more than 25 years. The Children's Defense Fund (1975), examining national school discipline figures from the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights (OCR), found suspension rates for Black students 2 and 3 times higher than suspension rates for White students at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. Investigators have found consistent evidence of significant minority overrepresentation in office referrals (Lietz & Gregory, 1978), suspension (Cooley, 1995; Costenbader & Markson, 1998; Skiba et al., 2003), and expulsion (Skiba et al., 2002). Skiba and his colleagues (2002) found racial differences in office referrals, suspensions, and expulsions, with African American students receiving more suspensions than all White students, even when controlling for socioeconomic status. In Massachusetts during the 2000-2001 school year, Rabrenovic and Levin (2003) found that although Hispanic and African American students comprised only 19.4% of the public school student population, they represented 56.7% of school exclusions. Zhang et al. (2004) found similar patterns of suspension practices nationally. They reported disproportionate exclusions of African American and Native American students, who were suspended more often than students from other racial subgroups.

We found fewer studies that examined the impact of suspension practices on students with disabilities, but the current research demonstrates that students with disabilities have a greater risk of suspension than their peers without disabilities. Reviewing results from several studies, Leone and his colleagues (2000) reported that students with disabilities represent approximately 11% of all school-age children but nearly 20% of the students who are suspended. Zhang et al. (2004) confirmed those findings in a national sample. They reported that students with disabilities were disproportionately suspended and that students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) had substantially higher rates of suspensions than students with other disabilities. Results from Cooley's survey (1995) indicated even higher disproportionate rates of disciplinary suspension for students with disabilities. He reported that students with disabilities comprised 24% of students suspended but only 11% of the student population, and students with EBD comprised 11% of students suspended but only 1% of the student population.