December 13, 2012 — vol. 48, no 19
Suspensions in Fall River under federal investigation
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) recently launched an investigation of out-of-school suspension practices in Fall River Public Schools (FRPS).
The investigation is in response to a complaint alleging those practices disproportionately harm students of color and students with disabilities and violate federal Civil Rights laws.
The complaint was filed in June by the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts and the Center for Civil Rights Remedies at the Civil Rights Project of UCLA.
In a letter sent earlier this month, OCR stated that it would investigate potential violations of both laws.
The complaint cited OCR data from the 2009-2010 school year, which showed that FRPS suspended 25.9 percent of black students, 23.1 percent of Latino students and 13.4 percent of white students enrolled in kindergarten through 12th grade.
The complaint highlights unusually high rates in FRPS for all students, suggesting that the district’s policies and practices around discipline are generally unsound, but harm some groups much more than others, according to a statement released by the ACLU.
Among the most notable concerns is the exclusion of students with disabilities on disciplinary grounds. Specifically, FRPS suspended 23.8 percent of all students with disabilities.
Suspension rates were even higher when race and disability overlapped. The district suspended over 42 percent of all black students with disabilities and 50 percent or more of black and Latino middle school students with disabilities.
New data and research have corroborated the facts asserted in the June 2012 complaint. For example, the Massachusetts Department of Education’s “Indicators Report” for the 2011-2012 school year showed that FRPS suspended 18.4 percent of all students in first through 12th grades. That was the second highest suspension rate among all non-charter school districts in the state.
Meanwhile, new research confirms the complaint’s criticism of out-of-school suspension in general: It does not help students, but alternative disciplinary practices do.
OCR’s decision to investigate does not mean FRPS has violated federal law.
“We are grateful that the Office for Civil Rights is giving our complaint careful attention,” said Matthew Segal, legal director of the ACLU of Massachusetts. “Fall River’s high rates of out-of-school suspension raise serious questions about whether the school district’s disciplinary practices benefit its students, particularly students of color and students with disabilities.”
The Center for Civil Rights Remedies is an initiative of the Civil Rights Project (CRP) at UCLA, which has been national in scope since its inception at Harvard Law School by Professors Christopher Edley Jr. and Gary Orfield.
Dan Losen, Director of the Center for Civil Rights Remedies, said, “…Fall River’s frequent and disparate suspensions of students of color and students with disabilities is a problem that can and must be remedied.”
Material from the ACLU of Massachusetts and the Center for Civil Rights Remedies contributed to this report.
| Dec 13 2:33am by Daniel Losen [173.48.165.78] | |
Our complaint does not assert a claim of intentional discrimination on the part of Fall River Public Schools. Instead it challenges the high-frequency use of suspensions as an unsound educational response to student misbehavior. Extensive research shows that even one suspension is associated with a much higher risk for course failure, grade retention, dropping out, and juvenile justice involvement. Frequent use of suspensions as a response to a wide range of minor misbehavior is not good for students, regardless of race. Further, research has established that frequently suspending students is not associated with better test scores. The federal data show that this counter-productive approach is harming students with disabilities and Black and Latino students in Fall River far more than White students. However, the unsound policies are also harmful to the White students in Fall River. The civil rights argument used in this complaint is based on a sound principle, that when a school's discipline policies or practices result in huge disparities in harm to children, by race, or disability status, they should replace them with more effective methods of creating safe and productive school environments. There are better ways to improve student behavior, ones that involve more attention from adults, more support and training for teachers, and these alternatives do not entail so many days of lost instruction. The remedy is to address misbehavior more effectively, so that behavior improves, not to ignore it. Further,there are many ways to instill order that also keep communities safer because they reduce the number of unsupervised youth out on the streets during school hours. Therefore the remedy, replacing unsound discipline policies and practices with more effective ones, ones that are effective for all subgroups, will help reduce the disparities, but also produce better academic outcomes and safer schools and communities for all. Dan Losen Director, The Center for Civil Rights Remedies The Civil Rights Project at UCLA |
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| Dec 12 15:23pm by Roger Clegg [173.73.73.2] | |
Racial disparities in school discipline do not prove racial discrimination; it might be that some racial and ethnic groups are committing infractions at higher rates than other racial and ethnic groups. Here's a good discussion: http://www.fed-soc.org/publications/detail/school-discipline-and-disparate-impact |
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