After the U.S Department of Education passed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in 1991, school districts quickly noticed that special education students covered under IDEA were receiving disciplinary measures at significantly higher rates than their non-disabled peers. Over 20 years later, special education students still experience…

According to literature, African American male students are disproportionately placed in special education programs throughout our national public school systems. Therefore, this study was intended to examine factors that may influence a teacher's decision to recommend students for special education services. The target population for this study…

Several studies identify inequitable educational outcomes for students from diverse racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds. For example, when compared to White/Caucasian students, such students are more likely to be disciplined in school settings. School-wide positive behavior support (SWPBS) is an intervention likely to improve disproportionate…

Past research has revealed that African American/Black boys are referred for special education evaluation at disproportionately higher rates than boys of other racial/ethnic groups. This correlational study used survey methodology to examine whether student and teacher demographic variables predicted how likely a teacher would refer boy students…

The term and construct "school-to-prison" pipeline has been widely used by advocates, researchers, and policymakers to describe the relationship between school disciplinary practices and increased risk of juvenile justice contact. It has been unclear whether the construct is a useful heuristic or a descriptor of empirically validated…

Research has widely documented the over-representation of office disciplinary referrals (ODRs) among specific student groups (e.g., African American, boys). Despite extant research documenting individual-level predictors of ODRs, few studies have accounted for the nested structure of the settings in which these events occur. Guided by critical…

Given documented racial/ethnic disproportionality in disciplinary referrals and strong recommendations to base provision of secondary level supports on data, we explored whether students from various racial/ethnic groups have equitable access to secondary supports. We disaggregated discipline data from 155 elementary and 46 middle schools by…

The quantitative study seeks to analyze if School-wide Positive Behavior Intervention and Support (SWPBIS) model reduces the likelihood that minority students will receive more individualized supports due to behavior problems. In theory, the SWPBIS model should reflect a 3-tier system with tier 1 representing approximately 80%, tier 2 representing…

Teachers report that the behaviors that they are forced to deal with on a daily basis are not typically violent or intense but are frequent and usurp great amounts of instructional time. Office discipline referrals provide a well-established method of tracking student behavior problems across the school, allowing for deeper analysis of contextual…

Unsupported fears of youth violence in schools has led to an expansion of school-based policing and zero tolerance discipline. The historical reality is that America's public schools are very safe, even when located in high crime neighborhoods. Yet, school discipline is becoming increasingly punitive, moving from the schoolhouse to the courthouse.…

African Americans are over-represented in school suspensions, yet little is known about the underlying contributing dynamics. Study 1 reviewed a high school's annual discipline data and 442 students referred for defiance. African Americans were over-represented in referrals for defiance and most students received referrals from one or several…

Office disciplinary referrals can be a useful index for assessing students? discipline problems as well as designing and evaluating school discipline practices. In this paper, we examined disciplinary referral data compiled from an urban elementary school (majority African American) in a midwestern city over a 2-year period. Evident issues…