It seems uncontentious that policy development should be informed by evidence, and that researchers should be engaged to assess available evidence. In this paper, we tell the story of a Rapid Evidence Assessment (REA) about school exclusion, a task intended to inform a 'root and branch' policy review. Drawing on Carol Bacchi's 'What's the…

Over the past decade, states and school districts have acted on research findings that the use of out-of-school suspension has run counter to the goals of education equity and achievement. Legislatures, as well as state and local boards of education, worked hard to shift school discipline practices through statutory and regulatory mandates and…

Black and (to a somewhat lesser degree) Hispanic students face significantly higher rates of punitive, exclusionary methods of discipline as compared to White students. In response, many schools have embraced cultural competence or cultural humility training, helping their educators and administrators to embrace more informed views about Black and…

The purpose of this paper is to explore the ways in which white fear governs school discipline policies and practices in Alabama. Specifically, we advance white fear as a conceptual framework through which school discipline policies implementation, interpretation, and data reporting can be understood. We focus here on the case of Alabama public…

The school-to-prison pipeline (STPP) describes in shorthand the problematic relationship between some students' school experiences and their subsequent incarceration. One summer, in response to vocal concerned parents, a suburban school board adopted a zero-tolerance policy for smoking and vaping. Through the combined effects of the zero-tolerance…

In 2015 Oregon enacted a school discipline policy reform for students in grades K-5 to limit exclusionary discipline actions (suspensions or expulsions that remove students from classroom instruction) to situations that threaten the safety of other students and adults. The reform built on a 2013 policy that directed districts to shift from a…

As awareness has grown about the harmful effects of exclusionary discipline, especially on the Black and Brown students who are disproportionately suspended and expelled, so, too, has interest in alternative approaches to discipline. Restorative practices focus on building or repairing relationships to address or preempt conflict. They are based…

Over the past several decades, public schools across the United States have experienced an increasingly visible diversity rift between student enrollment and teaching faculty. The number of students from diverse backgrounds continues to grow while educator ranks continue to become more homogeneous. This diversity rift presents several challenges…

Concerns for student safety are a commonly cited reason for the presence of police in schools. But as the nation grapples with the appropriate roles and responsibilities of police more broadly, the time is right to shine a light on what we know about the effects of police in schools. This brief summarizes the research related to this question.…

There is an overrepresentation of students with disabilities within the population of students excluded (i.e., suspended or expelled) from school. Students with disabilities are suspended for behaviors that are, for the most part, nonviolent and not unlike the behaviors of their general education peers. The Individuals With Disabilities Education…

In this case narrative, senior superintendents reckon with the challenges of implementing a revised strategic policy for student discipline in an intensified work environment. Challenges include: (a) providing professional learning to familiarize leaders and educators with regulatory requirements; (b) a problematic trend of school and district…

Across public and private settings, about 250 preschoolers are suspended or expelled each day, according to a Center for American Progress analysis of the 2016 National Survey of Children's Health (Malik, 2017). The U.S. Department of Education's Civil Rights Data Collection has exposed serious inequities in exclusionary discipline practices.…

In this brief, recent actions related to school discipline, discipline disparities in schools, the school-to-prison pipeline, and the added costs of suspending students in the U.S. are explored. The recommendations offered focus on how school leaders and policy makers can address disparities and how school cultures can be changed to reduce the…

Reducing disproportionality in school discipline is a grand challenge for school social work. Although the causes of disproportionality in exclusionary school discipline are interrelated and complex, one solution is to introduce alternatives to suspensions and expulsions that discipline students while keeping them engaged in school. The teen court…

Exclusionary discipline practices in the United States are used disproportionately in the punishment of Black students with a disability compared to White and Black students with or without a disability. One potential mechanism leading to the disproportionate use of exclusionary discipline is a process called 'manifestation determination reviews'…