Posted in Education
By Jennifer Rainville, Education Policy Attorney at SC Appleseed
About this blog: Education Policy Attorney Jennifer Rainville discusses why increasing suspension is not the best long-term solution to improving student outcomes and reducing in-class issues.
Did you know that South Carolina not only leads the nation in preschool suspensions but also in the suspension of students with disabilities? South Carolina suspends students with disabilities more than double the national average. (15% of suspensions SC vs 7.4% nationally.)
The average may even be worse than the data shows. These numbers do not capture soft suspensions, which are phone calls that parents get to pick their child up early when misbehavior occurs. It also does not cover students who are not properly identified as students with a disability, which is more common than you might think. Many parents struggle to get a student evaluated and served.
We have also heard complaints from teachers that in an effort to report better numbers, schools are changing suspension days to absences or removing teacher write ups from the disciplinary system, which exacerbates the problem rather than addresses the underlying issues. Teachers are expressing frustration over their inability to do their jobs because we are not providing enough working solutions to address the needs of their students.
I have represented a number of children who have some challenging behaviors and frequently those behaviors are tied to a disability that is not properly being addressed. I have seen children in kindergarten suspended nearly 40 times in a school year. I have seen students placed on an abbreviated or shortened school day because the school wasn’t properly addressing their behaviors. I have represented 5-year-olds who are being recommended for expulsion. All these students were struggling because they had a disability that wasn’t properly being addressed by the school. Once there was a good IEP in place, all of these students thrived in school. When these students’ needs were being met, behaviors decreased and they became a pleasure to have in the classroom.
“Study after study shows us that once a student is suspended, they are more likely to be suspended in the future.”
Instead of going straight to suspensions, we need to look at the root cause of behavior. Behavior is communication. We need to understand what a student’s behavior is communicating to us. Suspending students should be a last resort or saved for instances where there are legitimate safety concerns especially for our youngest learners.
We need to ensure that school districts are looking at behavior to determine what the student is communicating. There are many direct issues a student could be facing. It could be a student has a disability that needs to be addressed and supported, or a student is reacting to a traumatic life-event/bullying, or a student doesn’t have what they need due to poverty issues (having stable safe housing, having enough to eat).
There’s no doubt that identifying the root cause of problematic behavior takes longer than simply suspending a student. However, if the issues are properly addressed early, not only are interventions less expensive, but they are also more effective. We would also avoid additional years of stress on teachers and students and would see immediate improvement in educational outcomes.
Suspending students is not the answer. Study after study shows us that once a student is suspended, they are more likely to be suspended in the future. They will struggle academically, they will face a higher dropout risk, and they’ll be more likely to have contact with DJJ.
Our schools should be places that teach and protect, not punish and push aside students who need extra help. By choosing evidenced based supports over exclusionary discipline SC, we can keep all students learning in a safe environment and on track to a brighter future for all of us.
Further reading:
Acting Locally: A Guide to Getting Your Voice Heard by Local Government
ACA Open Enrollment Guide
A Guide to Giving Public Comment (Education)
Introduction to School Boards
