Black Students Six Times More Likely to be Suspended from School in RI

The latest report on school suspensions in Rhode Island by the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union shows that 12,682 students were suspended and a disproportionate amount were students of color or with disabilities.

The report looked at data from the most-recent school year and the ACLU said in a Friday news release that the data shows the state still has a long way to go to address unnecessarily high suspension rates.

“Rhode Island’s children with disabilities and children of color have for too long borne the brunt of a system over-reliant on removing children from the classroom rather than correcting their behavior,” said Hillary Davis, ACLU of RI policy associate who wrote the report, “Oversuspended and Underserved.”

Davis said last year was no exception and “Our children deserve the opportunity to learn from their mistakes rather than potentially face a lifetime of severe consequences. Earlier this year, the General Assembly stood poised to make Rhode Island a leader in protecting children from the over-reliance on suspensions. We hope that swift action when the General Assembly reconvenes in January ensures that Rhode Island’s children will no longer find themselves cast out of school because of a bad day.”

A full copy of the report is HERE.

Among the report’s findings for the 2014-2015 school year:

• The suspensions meted out last year resulted in more than 25,000 lost school days.
• Over 1,000 elementary school students were suspended from school. Seventy-five of them were in kindergarten alone.
• More than 60% of all suspensions were meted out for low-risk behavioral offenses such as “Disorderly Conduct” or “Insubordination/Disrespect.”
• Black elementary school children were nearly six times more likely than their white classmates to be suspended from school. Hispanic children were three and a half times more likely than their white elementary school counterparts to be suspended.
• Students with disabilities who have Individualized Education Plans were over two-and-a- half times more likely than a student without disabilities to be suspended from school.
• More than two-thirds of the suspensions levied against high school students with IEPs were for low-risk offenses – exactly the punishment that IEPs should help these students avoid.