Journal Article

Towards a Problem-Solving Approach to Addressing Racial Disparities in School Discipline Under Anti-Discrimination Law

Girvan, Erik J

2020

Overview

To support the argument, I draw on the example and experience of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Since 2004, the IDEA has required states to use a problem-solving approach to identify and address \"significant disproportionality\" in discipline outcomes of students with disabilities based on their race.10 The basic framework of the IDEA can serve as an example for implementation of a broader problemsolving approach for anti-discrimination law. [...]building on research on measures of and approaches for resolving racial disparities in discipline, I propose an alternative approach. [...]informed by the IDEA'S experience, Part V presents an alternative method for identifying significant disproportionality and evaluating the efficacy of interventions, a method that also addresses the legal and methodological issues faced by the IDEA. II.An Overview of Racial Dispariţies in Exclusionary School Disc ipline A. Aggregate Disparities Black students experience school discipline at much higher rates than white students.11 The most comprehensive records of racial disparities in exclusionary discipline (e.g., suspensions and expulsions) come from the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) in the United States Department of Education (DOE).12 In order to fulfill its obligations to enforce various federal anti-discrimination laws,13 the OCR surveys primary and secondary schools every other year about, among other topics related to educational outcomes, the rates at which students from various groups are disciplined.14 The results of recent surveys, compiled in the publicly available Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), are comprehensive, with response rates over the last decade approaching 100% о fall public schools in the United States.15 The data shows that, in the 2013-14 school year, about 16% of students enrolled in public schools were black.16 Black students, however, received approximately 32% of all in-school suspensions, 39% of all out-ofschool suspensions, and 30% of all expulsions.17 Ultimately, just 4% of white students were suspended at least once compared to approximately 14% of black students.18 While racial equality is often presumed to have improved in the United States from the 1960s and 1970s to today, racial disproportionality in exclusionary school discipline has actually gotten substantially worse over that period of time.

• Publisher: University of Memphis
• Subject: Black students / Civil rights / Data collection / Education / Inequality / Learning / Problem solving / Public schools / Racial differences / School discipline / Students with disabilities / White people