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Did you know that each year more than three million students are suspended from school?

While some of these suspensions are the result of violent or other extreme behavior, others are the result of relatively minor infractions – dress code violations, being late for school and so on.

Should we really be putting students through suspension for a minor infraction? Out-of-school suspension does not benefit schools in terms of test scores or graduation rates. And it can have a very negative impact on individual children. In addition to immediate academic consequences stemming from time out of the classroom (we all know the phrase, “you can’t teach to an empty desk”), suspension is a leading indicator of whether a child will drop out of school. It is also related to risk for future incarceration, part of the school-to-prison pipeline that we often hear about.

And these impacts are not spread equally throughout the student population. A recent report from the Civil Rights Project found that Black, Latino and Native American students are much more likely than their White and Asian American peers to be suspended. Seventeen percent of Black students – that is one out of every six enrolled in K-12 education – were suspended at least once in the 2009-10 school year, as were 8% (one in 13) of Native Americans and 7% (one in 14) of Latinos. Five percent (one in 20) of White students and 2% (one in 50) of Asian American students were suspended.

Students with disabilities are also more likely to be suspended than their peers. More than 13% of these students were suspended in 2009-10, compared to 7% of their peers without disabilities. Combining the racial and disability discrepancies, the report found that 25% (one out of every four) Black children with disabilities was suspended at least once in 2009-10.

Remember that these are national numbers – in some states and localities, the discrepancy can be even worse. Of course, that also means that in some localities, it is better. For example, Illinois had the largest Black/White racial gap in risk of being suspended in the nation at 21.3%. But in Montana, 3.8% of White students were suspended, compared to 3.4% of Black students. And while more than 300 of the 4,504 districts included in the data set suspended over 25% of the Black children enrolled, in more than 1,400 districts, their risk of suspension was 3% or less.

So while both suspension as a whole and the equity issues that accompany it are national problems, they are also very much state and local problems. And to address them will require local solutions.

To shed light on this issue, Solutions Not Suspensions, a grassroots initiative of students, educators, parents and community leaders, is calling for a nationwide moratorium on out-of-school suspensions (two national organizations, the Opportunity to Learn Campaign and the Dignity in Schools Campaign, are helping coordinate this effort). They are asking states and districts to support teachers and schools in dealing with discipline in positive ways and in working with students and parents to create safe and engaging classrooms.

Solutions Not Suspensions also promotes proven programs that equip teachers and school administrators with effective alternatives to suspensions. Their website will serve as a clearinghouse for information on these alternatives.

Supporters believe that the moratorium will provide time for educators and community leaders to work with school boards and state legislators to try out alternatives to out-of-school-suspensions that hold students accountable in constructive ways. As Eddie Madison, a parent organizer with Community Asset Development redefining Education (CADRE), a South Los Angeles-based parent organization and member of the Dignity in Schools Campaign, is quoted, “Schools should be a place for young people to learn, not just basic math, language and science but also positive life-lessons learned both from their successes and mistakes.”

While not all fully support the idea of a moratorium – for example, American Federation of Teachers (AFT) has expressed concern about the effects of a moratorium without viable alternatives, especially given today’s budget climate – the education community recognizes the need to address out-of-school suspensions and appreciates the attention drawn to the problem. As AFT President Randi Weingarten said, “We all have a shared responsibility to confront this issue.”

Image modified from work by strngwrldfrwl from Japan (Flickr) [CC-BY-SA-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons