Fix School Discipline Toolkit for Educators | Page 5

WHY WE MUST REFORM
SCHOOL DISCIPLINE IN
CALIFORNIA
The Big Picture:
One of the most important functions of public
education is to lay the foundation for future
opportunity and educational success for all students.
However, California’s current harsh discipline
policies and practices operate in the opposite way.
Instead of correcting students’ behavior and making
communities and schools safer the quick-push-out
methods—out-of-school suspension and expulsion—
deprive students of the chance to receive the help
and education they need, making it far more likely
that they will enter the criminal justice system,
drop out of school, and place their future options in
jeopardy.

How do harsh and zero-tolerance discipline
methods work in California schools?
Currently, California schools issue more suspensions
than diplomas each year.3 During the 2013-14 school
year, California schools issued more than 392,000
out-of-school suspensions,4 and more than 297,000
students were suspended out-of-school at least one
time.5
Contrary to common perceptions, a significant
number of California’s suspensions are unrelated
to school safety but instead are for minor, vaguely
defined behavior infractions.6 Willful defiance/
3 California Department of Education DataQuest, available at http://
dq.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/ (2012) [hereafter, CDE DataQuest].
4 Id.
5 Losen, D., Martinez, T., & Gillespie, J. (2012), Suspended Education in
California, The Center for Civil Rights Remedies at the Civil Rights Project.
6 Skiba, R.J. (2000), Zero Tolerance, Zero Evidence: An Analysis of School
Disciplinary Practice.

disruption is identified as the most “severe”grounds
for 29% of all suspensions and 4% of all expulsions in
2013-14. 7t
Suspensions for “willful defiance” can include
anything from chewing gum in class, to talking
back, or wearing the wrong clothes. As a former
Vice Principal in Los Angeles told the Associated
Press when explaining why he took suspension off
the quick-trigger menu, “willful defiance” is the big
umbrella --- anything can fit in that category.

Do suspensions and expulsions change
and improve student behavior?
There is “no research base to support frequent
suspension or expulsion in response to non-violent
and mundane forms of adolescent misbehavior;
frequent suspension and expulsion are associated
with negative outcomes; and better alternatives are
available.”8
In fact, these strategies often have the opposite effect
of exacerbating the problem, sending the student
on an unsupervised leave from school and further
alienating him or her from the school environment.9

Which students are suspended and
expelled in California?
In California, students of color are suspended at
disproportionately higher rates than white students.
7 CDE Dataquest (2013)
8 Losen, D.J. (2011), Discipline Policies, Successful Schools and Racial
Justice.
9 American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on School Health. (2003),
Policy Statement: Out-of-school suspension and expulsion, 112 (5), 12061209.

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