New ACLU Report: Racial Disparities In RI School Suspensions Highest in Decade

Wednesday, May 06, 2015

Jane Fusco, GoLocalProv Contributor

Racial disparities in suspensions at Rhode Island’s schools reached their highest rates in a decade last year, according to a new report issued Tuesday by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Rhode Island.

The report found that while white students experienced a ten-year low in suspensions during the 2013-2014 school year -- and that the combined suspension rate for Hispanic, black and Native American students was at an all-time high.

Read the Report HERE

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Hillary Davis, the ACLU of RI’s policy associate and report author, said: “Rhode Island’s schools have for too long relied on suspensions to address minor behavioral issues, disproportionately pushing black and Hispanic students out of the classroom instead of keeping our children in school where they belong. The long-term effects of suspensions are serious…Rhode Island cannot afford to wait for those effects to boil over before we address this long-simmering, rectifiable issue.”

The report showed significant racial disparities were found in school districts across the state, beginning as early as elementary school, and affected black girls as well as boys. These findings come just one year after the federal government issued guidance to school districts that suspension use should be minimized. The Rhode Island General Assembly is also considering legislation to prohibit suspensions for low-risk behavioral offenses.

Among the Report Findings:

Black students were suspended from school more than twice as often as would be expected based on their representation in the student body population. Hispanic students were suspended more than one-and-a-half times as often as expected, the highest rate in a decade, while white students experienced a ten-year low.
Black girls were nearly four times more likely than white girls to be suspended, including for minor, vague offenses like “disorderly conduct” and “disrespect.”
Black elementary school students were suspended at a rate nearly three times the rate expected given their representation in the population, while white elementary school students were suspended just half as often as expected.
The racial disparities in discipline are statewide: 24 school districts and two charter schools suspended black students at rates disproportionately higher than their representation in the student body, while 21 districts and two charter school disproportionately suspended Hispanic students.
Despite an increasing consensus nationwide that suspensions should be reserved as discipline only in very serious circumstances, more than half of all suspensions were issued for “Disorderly Conduct” or “Insubordination/Disrespect.”

Related Slideshow: The RI High Schools with the Most Absentee Students

Below are the rates of chronic absenteeism for public high schools across the state. Figures are taken from the InfoWorks database maintained by the Rhode Island Department of Education. As the state defines it, a student has become chronically absent when he or she has missed 10 percent of the school year. With a 180-day mandated school year, that comes out to at least 18 or more days of missed school. Data is for the most recent academic year, 2013 to 2014.

New ACLU Report: Racial Disparities In RI School Suspensions Highest in Decade

Related Slideshow: The RI High Schools with the Most Absentee Students

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