Report: Disabled students almost twice as likely to be suspended

The Raw Story

A new study indicates students with disabilities throughout the public school system are getting suspended nearly twice as much as those without, with disabled black students being particularly disciplined.

According to the New York Times, the analysis (PDF) by the Center for Civil Rights Remedies at UCLA took a look at data compiled in 10 states during the 2009-10 school year by the Department of Education, and found that more than 25 percent of black students with disabilities, ranging from kindergarteners to high school seniors, were suspended.

Overall, 13 percent of disabled students were suspended, compared to 7 percent of non-disabled students.

Report: Disabled students almost twice as likely to be suspended

Decade after decade after decade and They can't seem to solve the public school "problems".

What does THAT tell you about the "system" that "teaches" the teachers and administrators ??

It's almost like it gets worse and worse as time goes on.

AND, it always costs more year after year after year !!!!

Study after study after study..........

The corruption levels are high in the school system IMO.

Other recommendations in the UCLA report for school districts include additional training for teachers; the inclusion of suspension rates in performance criteria for schools and classroom management skills in teacher assessments.

now they tell us !!

Dear xuenchen,

Part of the difficulty they're having in fixing the problem comes from the fact that they don't know what the problem is. The report claims (or so it seems to me) that the problem is discriminatory suspensions based on race or disability. Even out those numbers and we'll be good. Here were their key findings:

• National suspension rates show that 17%, or 1 out of every 6 Black schoolchildren enrolled in K-12, were suspended at least once. That is much higher than the 1 in 13 (8%) risk for Native Americans; 1 in 14 (7%) for Latinos; 1 in 20 (5%) for Whites; or the 1 in 50 (2%) for Asian Americans.
• For all racial groups combined, more than 13% of students with disabilities were suspended. This is approximately twice the rate of their non-disabled peers.
• Most disturbing is the fact that one out of every four (25%) Black children with disabilities enrolled in grades K-12 was suspended at least once in 2009-2010.
• Students with disabilities and Black students were also more likely to be suspended repeatedly in a given year than to be suspended just once. The reverse was true for students without disabilities and for most other racial/ethnic groups

Some observations: It doesn't appear that there was an anti-white bias, as other non-whites had half the suspensions of blacks. Could it be that the suspensions were given out fairly, based on behavior?

On the question of disabilities, I do not believe that blind children were suspended twice as often as the sighted, I wonder if by disabilities, they mean mental and emotional problems. If that is the case, then extra suspensions make sense.

I can see piles of money, regulations, and staff time used to deal with this new "insight." No wonder public education costs so much.

With respect,
charles1952

reply to post by xuenchen


I remember some "disabled" kids in high school that were always in trouble. Because they acted like [SNIP] When their behavior becomes disruptive to the class in general what is a school to do? There are a lot of kids "disabled" but not in a literal sense where they need special education classes. For the most part I thought most of them were simply stupid and so appeared to be disabled. Or perhaps stupidity is a disability now I don't know. I'll never forget the guy suspended for wanking off in math class though.. truly special individual. The innocence of math lost forever.

Reply to post by charles1952

*sigh* Anti white bias...lol. Not saying it doesnt happen, but pretty much anything dealing with minorities on ATS is seen as anti-white bias...it gets tiresome. Anyway, on topic, blind children are not enrolled in regular public schools neither are deaf children. I think what they are referring to as disabilities are things more along the lines of ADD or dyslexia. Possibly a high functioning autistic child. It makes sense that children with disabilities are suspeneded more because they get often frustrated if they arent understanding what is being taught and have trouble vocalizing their needs. That leads to a vicious cycle of them acting out, not because they are bad but they are not being catered to. If a teacher is not properly trained in how to deal with these children or the class is too big to give the child the attention it needs, they will act out. Instead of the school trying to work with the child its easier to just suspend them.


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reply to post by acmpnsfal

Dear acmpnsfal,

Couldn't agree with you more on the disability issue, thanks.

My concern is that the report seems to be describing it as discrimination in one form or another. If that's seen as the problem, I don't think they'll solve it. You're a valuable signpost, saying "The problem's over here now we can fix it."

With respect,
Charles1952

Soooo this is just about black disabled students..? This article is choppy, ADHD is considered a disability and when i was in school most of the white kids had it. Fact...

Honestly, this should come as no surprise. Everything, from down's syndrome to behaviour issues, is considered a disability. So youve got kids with rage issues, autism, drug addiction, depression, etc, all within that group. And those are kids that are more likely to commit a suspendable act.

Personally, I think suspension in school is a really bad thing. But this stat does not surprise or upset me in the least.

I wonder if many of these kids are "Ritalin" kids ?

Ritalin is a very dangerous "medication".

We need to wonder too if Teachers were / are taking "medications" ?

And further, what about these "study" producers ?

Originally posted by xuenchen
I wonder if many of these kids are "Ritalin" kids ?

Ritalin is a very dangerous "medication".

We need to wonder too if Teachers were / are taking "medications" ?

And further, what about these "study" producers ?

Guarantee that they are ridalin kids. I used to work with that specific population, along with autism cases.

reply to post by Rockpuck


That was my first thought too. Looking back to my middle school years I remember that the majority of the "special" kids were total jerks. I think when you have teachers and parents telling you over and over again how "special" you are it gives you a big ego. You start to think you really are special and better than everyone else.

There were a few of the "special" kids that got along perfectly fine with everyone else, had "normal" friends and didn't get made fun of. Why? Because they were cool, they didn't act like arseholes. The majority of them, however, were dicks and it's no surprise they didn't have friends and got hassled. I didn't feel bad for them, just because something is wrong with you doesn't give you the right to treat other people like trash.

I'd imagine that's why these statistics are as they are. "special" kids are generally trouble makers or otherwise disruptive and do things they aren't supposed to do. Hence the greater instances of being suspended. It's not rocket science.

Reply to post by charles1952

Well I mean the point of the article was to point out the problem, not really to provide a solution. You have to start somewhere.


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There was a kid in my high school who was, to be kind, a bit "off"... He was most likely legally right at the threshold for retardation... he picked through trash cans during lunch, yelled randomly at other students, and had a variety of "isms" that were problematic in a social setting.

Having said that... I myself got suspended twice for fighting people who were picking on this kid. I cannot imagine what it would be like to be him. He was socially outcast, ridiculed, picked-on, insulted, and abused constantly. So I tend to want to play the Devils advocate here and ask myself "How many of these kids are problems versus how many get labeled as problems because the "normal" kids won't leave them alone and treat them like human beings?"

I mean... seriously... there, but for the grace...

~Heff

Originally posted by Hefficide

There was a kid in my high school who was, to be kind, a bit "off"... He was most likely legally right at the threshold for retardation... he picked through trash cans during lunch, yelled randomly at other students, and had a variety of "isms" that were problematic in a social setting.

Having said that... I myself got suspended twice for fighting people who were picking on this kid. I cannot imagine what it would be like to be him. He was socially outcast, ridiculed, picked-on, insulted, and abused constantly. So I tend to want to play the Devils advocate here and ask myself "How many of these kids are problems versus how many get labeled as problems because the "normal" kids won't leave them alone and treat them like human beings?"

I mean... seriously... there, but for the grace...

~Heff

That's a very real possibility.

When I read the OP's article I get the impression (which may be incorrect) that the article's point is that the school's administration is discriminating against "disabled" students and suspending them more than they SHOULD be suspended.

Which I disagree with. I think the "disabled" students simply act out, and do things deserving of suspension far more frequently than the "normal" kids. Like someone else mentioned, the term "disabled" is used in such a generic fashion these days that "disabled" could mean simply having ADD/ADHD, or a relatively benign mental issue, all the way to being someone who is fully blown mentally incompetent and has no idea who they are or what they are doing.

Schools, at least the one I attended all those years ago, didn't segregate the disabled people according to their severity of disability. If any students weren't normal they were ALL thrown together in the same class.

This alone makes it nearly impossible to help or teach these kids at all. Someone who is just slightly mentally disabled but still completely "with it" is thrown in the same class as someone who can't even tie their own shoes or speak properly. How are the borderline students supposed to get any help or education if the class is teaching to the lowest common denominator (as schools almost always do)

I still stand by what I said in my previous post. In my middle school, the vast majority of the kids in special ed were just total jerks. I'm looking at this from my current adult perspective, not the perspective I had at the time. Those kids would hit or kick other students, yell at them, make fun of them (yes, the disabled kids would constantly make fun of the "normal" kids) and in general just be nasty to all of the normal students.

I'm not saying they are all like that. I can only comment on my experience. Based on this, it would make perfect sense that the students labeled "disabled" would do things that cause them to get suspended more often than the other students.

As far as the minority groups being punished more often than other groups, who's fault is it that the minorities are guilty of more offenses worthy of suspension? Schools don't suspend people for silly little things (generally) so if these kids are being suspended at a higher rate, I don't see any reason NOT to believe that these minority children are simply behaving worse than the other kids.

The reason? Who knows. I'm not an expert on these types of things. But from what I've read, the fact that on average minorities are from lower income households, more likely to have one or two missing parents, and overall have a less stable home life would obviously contribute to these kids being trouble makers in school. At this age I don't blame the kids, I blame the parents. They need to step up and do what's right for their children, regardless of how it affects the parents life. You have a kid, you instantly make that kid the #1 thing in the entire world, nothing is more important.

The cycle needs to be broken where kids are brought up in substandard households, grow up and have kids of their own which they cannot provide a stable household for because they are gone/on drugs/in jail/drunk/whatever else.

I've run across something that relates to the racial disparity in suspensions. It gives me one more reason to fear Washington. www.city-journal.org... It is a very long article, but if you are interested in the public education system, I think you'll get a lot out of it. There are statistics and personal stories which helped me to understand why the system is such a failure. Give the article a try, you might find it gripping.

Anyway, here are a few paragraphs from the start:

And so the Departments of Education and Justice have launched a campaign against disproportionate minority discipline rates, which show up in virtually every school district with significant numbers of black and Hispanic students. The possibility that students’ behavior, not educators’ racism, drives those rates lies outside the Obama administration’s conceptual universe. But the country will pay a high price for the feds’ blindness, as the cascade of red tape and lawsuits emanating from Washington will depress student achievement and enrich advocates and attorneys for years to come.

This past March, Duncan released some newly gathered national discipline data. The “undeniable truth,” he said, was that the “everyday educational experience for many students of color violates the principle of equity.” The massive media coverage of Duncan’s report trumpeted the discipline disparity—blacks were three and a half times more likely to get suspended or expelled than their white peers—as convincing evidence of widespread discrimination. (The fact that white boys were over two times as likely to be suspended as Asian and Pacific Islander boys was discreetly ignored, though it would seem to imply antiwhite bias as well.)

The Department of Education has launched investigations of at least five school systems because of their disparate black-white discipline rates. The Department of Justice has already put the Barnwell, South Carolina, school district under a costly consent decree, complete with a pricey outside consultant, and is seeking similar control of other districts. The theory behind this school discipline push is what Obama officials and civil rights advocates call the “school-to-prison pipeline.” According to this conceit, harsh discipline practices—above all, suspensions—strip minority students of classroom time, causing them to learn less, drop out of school, and eventually land in prison.