Some disciplinary policies meant to improve safety in schools are linked to poorer academic performance and early student involvement in the criminal justice system.
Rates of suspension, expulsion and school-related law enforcement encounters are disproportionately higher for boys, students with disabilities, and Black students.
State policies related to school discipline can be targeted to decrease student incarceration rates and improve learning outcomes.
On-campus law enforcement officials (e.g., school resource officers) and ‘zero tolerance’ policies for minor infractions of codes of conduct are the primary mechanisms connect-ing students to corrections systems (Mallett, 2016). This pathway is often called the ‘school-to-prison-pipeline' (Mallett, 2016).
School resource officers (SROs) are “sworn law enforcement officers responsible for safety in schools” that can make arrests, respond to calls, and document campus incidents (USDOJ).
‘Zero tolerance’ (ZT) refers to a strict disciplinary approach that removes students from school to curb violence and drug use on campus. It can also be applied to minor offenses such as truancy and class disruption (Monahan, 2014).
Security measures such as security cameras, metal detectors, and regular or random searches along with bias based on ability, sex, gender identity, and race also affect the number of students sent into the corrections system (Mallett, 2016; Sorenson, 2021).
Suspensions and arrests are used disproportion-ately for Black students (USDOE, 2014). Hispanic, Pacific Islander, American Indian/ Alaska Native, multiracial students, and students with disabilities also have higher suspension rates than White students (USDOE, 2014; de Brey, 2019).
Students who have been suspended are more likely to dropout, fail classes and standardized tests (Chu, 2018). While suspended, students are twice as likely to be arrested (Monahan, 2014). High numbers of suspensions/expulsions are associated with increased risk of recidivism to juvenile detention (Novak, 2022).
Figure 1. In Missouri, average out-of-school suspension (OSS) rates are higher for predominantly minority schools (adapted from PRiME, 2020).
Policies promoting positive social and professional support, and trust between students and staff may improve learning outcomes (Mallett 2016). Many states have recently advanced policies to reduce the use of corrections in schools, but evaluation of program efficacy is still lacking for many.
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