Missouri Schools' Biased Disciplinary Policies Worsen: ACLU

ST. LOUIS, MO — New data from the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri shows the state's public schools are not only failing students of color and students with disabilities, they're getting worse.

According to the group, Missouri has the 10th highest gap between black and white K-12 students in the nation for out-of-school suspensions. The ACLU cites federal data from the Office of Civil Rights collected during the 2015-16 school year.

This is a significant increase from the last available survey data from the 2013-2014 school year, which was the basis of the group's "school-to-prison pipeline" report last October.

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Black children routinely face harsher, more frequent discipline at school than their white peers, amounting to de facto segregation in Missouri classrooms, the ACLU says. The disparities are even worse for black students with disabilities.

For example, black students are five times more likely to receive out-of-school suspensions — 4.5 percent higher than the initial report indicated — and black students with disabilities are now suspended three times more often than white students with disabilities, an increase of more than a third from the 2013-14 school year.

This trend starts even before kindergarten — black preschoolers are suspended more than four times as often as white preschoolers — and only gets worse over time. Black students with disabilities are eight times more likely to receive out-of-school suspensions than their white peers.

The previous report blamed both implicit bias on the part of teachers and school administrators, and school policies that have disparate impacts on minority students, despite ostensibly being racially neutral. An example cited is a ban on loose-fitting clothing.

The ACLU made several policy recommendations. For legislators and law enforcement, these include eliminating zero-tolerance policies, extending Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches to students, and making arrests a last resort. For teachers and administrators, the report recommended eliminating school policies that punish vague infractions, such as "defiance," and doing away with out-of-school suspensions and expulsions altogether.

"When students experience harsh and disproportionate discipline in school, it can put them on a path to interact with the criminal justice system their entire lives, in what’s known as the 'school-to-prison pipeline,' the ACLU said in a news release. "The consequences of the 'school-to-prison pipeline' have a long-term and far-reaching effect on our society by perpetuating cycles of poverty, low-education attainment, and systemic structural inequalities."

The ACLU of Missouri says it is partnering with targeted school districts in Missouri to end the school-to-prison pipeline in our state. Report cards for these districts will be available later this summer.

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