New Data on School Suspensions Highlight Educational Inequities
Students Suspended from School, by Foster Youth Status: 2018-2019
Kidsdata.org recently released new data on school suspension and expulsion rates. Compare rates for foster youth, homeless students, and economically disadvantaged students as well as by disability status and by race/ethnicity.
In California public schools, 35 students for every 1,000 were suspended in 2019. Foster youth, in particular, experienced high rates of suspension. In 2018-2019, 152 per 1,000 foster youth were suspended from California schools compared with 34 per 1,000 among non-foster youth.
While foster youth were suspended at almost five times the rate of other students, some student groups were suspended at about double the rate.
For every 1,000 students,
- 60 homeless students were suspended compared with 34 non-homeless students.
- 45 socioeconomically disadvantaged students were suspended compared with 19 socioeconomically advantaged students.
- 66 students with disabilities were suspended compared with 30 students without disabilities.
- 92 African American/Black students, 73 American Indian/Alaska Native students, 36 Hispanic/Latino students, and 30 white students were suspended.
For these student groups, being subjected to higher suspension rates than their peers represents another example of inequity among our youth. Suspensions, expulsions, and frequent absences for any reason are linked to lower test scores, higher dropout rates, and more frequent entries into the juvenile justice system, all of which can have lifelong effects on employment and earning potential. Recent California legislation provides momentum in a positive direction by restricting out-of-school suspensions, a change that should decrease rates and address educational inequities.
Educational Equity Resources
The Civil Rights Project at UCLA asks, Is California Doing Enough to Close the School Discipline Gap? A trend analysis showed that disparities in suspension rates have narrowed but remain in recent years.
A guidebook, Building Educational Equity Indicator Systems by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, helps state and school district leaders develop ways of tracking educational equity within their Pre-K – 12 systems.
Children’s Health Resources
The Rapid Assessment of Pandemic Impact on Development – Early Childhood (RAPID-EC), a nationally representative longitudinal survey conducted by the University of Oregon’s Center for Translational Neuroscience, addresses the role of caregiver emotional support in buffering children in their latest report, How Long Can the Levee Hold?
The Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health continually updates a curated list of COVID-19 Resources for Children with Special Health Care Needs.
Posted by kidsdata.org
This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 25th, 2020 at 8:20 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.