AUSTIN (1080 KRLD) - A new report released Wednesday by the nonprofit organization Texans Care for Children warns that Texas students in pre-K through 2nd grade are still at risk of being suspended.
The report calls on education and policy leaders to work to replace early grade suspensions with positive behavioral strategies, reduce the use of in-school suspensions in these grades, eliminate the disproportionate punishment of certain young students, and rein in those districts that suspend shockingly high numbers of pre-k students.
The report follows up on the state Legislature’s passage of HB 674 in 2017 to ban out-of-school suspensions in nearly all cases for pre-k through second grade students. The legislation allows school districts to continue to use in-school suspensions for those grades. The bill also authorized districts to implement positive behavior strategies and supports for students and teachers.
“The Legislature took a huge step forward last year, but there’s more work to do for school boards, superintendents, and state leaders,” said Stephanie Rubin, CEO of Texans Care for Children. “School leaders need to make sure teachers get the support they need to effectively address challenging behavior in the classroom and young students get the support they need to succeed in school.”
According to Texans Care for Children’s analysis of state data, in pre-k through second grade there were 64,773 in-school suspensions and 36,475 out-of-school suspensions in Texas public schools during the 2015-2016 school year.
“Schools are suspending little kids as young as four years old, many of whom are in a classroom for the first time in their lives. Suspending our youngest students interrupts their education, communicates to them that they don’t belong, and misses a critical opportunity to actually address why they might be acting out,” said Ms. Rubin. “A suspension does nothing to resolve the root of the problem, whether it’s a child’s developmental delay, the trauma of an abusive home, challenging but age-appropriate behavior, a teacher’s need for stronger classroom management strategies, large pre-k class sizes, or an educator’s implicit biases about certain demographic groups.”
State data indicate that Texas schools disproportionately suspend pre-k through second grade students who are Black, male, in special education, or in foster care. The report notes that that pattern likely reflects recent research led by Dr. Walter S. Gilliam of the Yale Child Study Center. In a controlled study in which young Black and White children were actors and behaving appropriately, both Black and White early educators were more likely to focus on boys, particularly boys who are Black, as potentially misbehaving.
In the 2015-2016 school year, compared to White students, Black students in these grades in Texas were almost five times more likely to receive an out-of-school suspension and more than twice as likely to receive an in-school suspension.
Boys were more than four times more likely to be suspended -- either in-school or out-of-school -- than girls.
Students in special education were two times more likely to receive in-school and out-of-school suspensions than the overall pre-k through 2nd grade student population.