The U.S. Department of Education released a data set in 2011-2012 regarding discipline in schools in the U.S. The data revealed Black girls were the fastest growing population of students experiencing suspension and expulsion. Compared to their White peers, Black girls were suspended at a rate of six times more. The theoretical framework for this…

Schools across the United States use abeyance agreements as an alternative to suspension or expulsion, yet little is known about them. These agreements allow students to avoid or reduce suspensions or expulsions, if they meet the terms of the agreement and waive certain due process rights. David Perrodin argues that these agreements enable school…

The purpose of this exploratory qualitative study was to examine how the perceptions and experiences of teachers relate to the suspension and expulsion of preschoolers in Catholic schools. Results indicated that teachers have a range of experiences with suspension, from children being removed from the classroom temporarily to out-of-school…

This dissertation contains two studies that examine family therapy services within public schools related to behavioral or discipline concerns. Both studies stem from an ecological and family systems theoretical framework in examining relationships between the student, family, and school systems. The first study is a scoping review on family…

Expulsion and suspension (or exclusionary discipline) in early care and education (ECE) are widely recognized as harmful to children. Numerous states have developed expulsion and suspension prevention policies through legislation or administrative rules. However, there is limited research on the implementation of state policies designed to reduce…

There are high rates of disciplinary issues present in urban elementary schools in the United States, and school administrators need more effective strategies for improvement. Researchers have found that exclusionary discipline practices like suspensions and expulsions are often overused, have questionable efficacy, and disproportionately affect…

The purpose of this exploratory interview study was to examine the perceptions and experiences of 12 teachers related to the suspension and expulsion of preschoolers in private early childhood programs. Thematic and constant comparative methods were used for data analysis. Results indicated that teachers had a range of experiences with suspension,…

In this study, we identified the specific discipline decision situations (i.e., vulnerable decision points [VDPs]) that contribute most to racial discipline disparities from a sample of 2020 schools across the United States. We also examined how much VDPs contributed to overall discipline disparities and the extent which there was similarity among…

Preschool children exhibiting externalizing behavior problems are frequently subjected to harsh disciplinary measures, such as expulsion, which can have lasting negative effects. Teachers have the potential to better support these children by fostering their development of social-emotional skills. In this study, the researcher collaborated with a…

Many schools use exclusionary discipline--such as suspensions and expulsions--to deter students from misbehaving and to protect students from the harms associated with exposure to student misbehavior. Research indicates that, while often implemented with good intentions, exclusionary discipline increases (rather than deters) misbehavior and risks…

This research study examined the impact of negative behavioral consequences on the academic achievement of 9th-grade students from three rural high schools in South Carolina before and after COVID-19 and by gender. The researcher used a comparative research design to examine achieved data of different genders, incidents at school, actions taken by…

National policies have targeted widespread exclusionary discipline in schools which is associated with negative academic outcomes. Principals play an important role in making disciplinary decisions, yet little is understood about how their mindsets might impact these decisions. We hypothesized that principals' mindsets regarding the purpose of…

In 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the national enrollment rate for pre-k children ages 3 to 4 was 40% (a drop from 54% in 2019; National Center for Education Statistics, 2022). This is partly due to fewer children in the 0-5 age group (23.4 million of 72.8 million children in the United States in 2020; U.S. Census Bureau, 2020).…

The school discipline literature has expanded rapidly in recent decades, yet the conceptualization and measurement of school discipline patterns remains overlooked. In this paper, we present a comprehensive analytic framework to examine school discipline patterns that encompasses school-level metrics that capture the prevalence and disparity in…

Public school administrators use restorative practices (RPs) as a discipline intervention to reduce student expulsions and suspensions. The problem addressed in this qualitative study was that despite the implementation of RPs in a school district in the Southwestern United States, student misconduct increased. The purpose of this basic…